Symbiosis, Social Media, and the Improbable Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

How a Simpering Media Bowed to the Tyranny of the Almighty Click

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has enjoyed more media coverage—both toadying and truculent—than any freshly-minted lawmaker in our country’s brief history.

A perfect storm of Trump hysteria, the ubiquity of social media, and the associated entrenchment of click-driven “news” created an unprecedented opportunity for the 29-year-old bartender from the Bronx.

Seated in Congress for all of 3 months, Ocasio-Cortez now commands a simpering, blinkered media that delivers nonstop coverage of her every move. Her cult-like following eagerly lap it up, subsequently rewarding the media in the currency of the internet—clicks and shares.

The vicious cycle that gives us “news” stories about AOC’s snarky tweets, evening snacks, and puerile legislation is powerful, insidious, and near impossible to interrupt.

Conservative, liberal, and straddling outlets have all played a role. Clearly, the tone of the coverage varies according to the political leanings of a given outlet. Coverage itself, however, is near universal.

AOC and the media need one another.

Their unstated arrangement is mutually beneficial. Further, metering or severing it carries substantial political and monetary risk for both parties.

The relationship between AOC the media is symbiotic, closely resembling that of a clownfish and a sea anemone.

Ocellaris clownfish—think Nemo in Disney’s “Finding Nemo”—make their homes in sea anemones’ stinging tentacles and are immune to their marine landlord’s toxins.

Anemones shield clownfish from predators that would otherwise devour it.

The clownfish, in turn, nourishes and protects the anemone in several ways.

First, it helps the anemone “breathe” at night, its “frenetic dance” providing aeration. Second, it lures prey for the anemone to consume, later feasting on the scraps. Finally, it fertilizes the creature with its own excrement.

For the purpose of this extended metaphor, AOC is the clownfish; the media are venomous anemone, and other denizens of the sea—prey and bystanders—are ordinary Americans.

Like the clownfish does for the anemone, AOC oxygenates the media with her own frenetic dance of cringe-worthy flubs and reality tv-like livestreams of her day-to-day life.

Like the clownfish does for the anemone, AOC lures prey for the media to consume.

Like the clownfish does for the anemone, AOC’s metaphorical “excrement,” in the form of inane or incendiary tweets, nourishes and fertilizes the outlets that consume and regurgitate it for the masses.

Legacy media’s tentacles, like that of the anemone, are toxic. They are particularly dangerous for politicians, celebrities, and other news-makers lacking the natural immunity of liberalism.

AOC provides the material that generates revenue for cash-strapped newsrooms serving an insatiable, always-on internet audience who demand a constant infusion of fresh, free content at the cost of a click.

Those clicks are more readily driven by headlines like “You’ll Never Guess What AOC Had for Dinner!” than by traditional, hard-hitting journalism.

High quality journalism is costly to create. Understandably, it is often protected by paywalls.

AOC’s 50-word tweet on Saturday night generated a flurry of coverage from outlets as diverse as HuffPost and Haaretz by Sunday morning.

In the tweet, AOC admonished Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. She suggested that the judge’s controversial remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) hijab lead to a death threat against the freshman Congresswoman.

Understand when Jeanine Pirro goes on Fox + rallies people to think hijabs are threatening, it leads to this.

Folks who imply we’re “bad” for politics, the party, the country, etc. have no idea the threats we deal w/ because of that kind of language.

Talk policy, not personal. https://t.co/udFg3LMdgB

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 7, 2019

Media, newsmakers, and consumers are swirling in a whirlpool of our own making.

Though consumers decry the proliferation of “junk” news—freshman lawmaker’s opining on gardening and apartment furnishings come to mind—many are unwilling to pony up the cash required to deliver quality journalism.

“Junk” news keeps the lights on for struggling newsrooms. It generates revenue with the clicks and shares advertisers demand, and for which they will pay a pretty penny.

So what does this mean for AOC and for consumers of news?

Are we doomed to this endless barrage covering adolescent-level rage fests and relentless puffing up of the politically and intellectually inept?

Yes. Probably. At least for the time being.

There are, of course, some notable exceptions.

But for the most part, until consumers start demanding better from news purveyors, and more importantly—stop clicking and sharing inane content—the clownfish and the anemone will happily carry on in symbiotic bliss.