AOC Calls Out Bari Weiss For Letting Netanyahu Pick Interviewer: ‘Violation of Any Journalistic Standard’

Photo by: Marijan Murat/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called out CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on Thursday over reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was allowed to pick his 60 Minutes interviewer.

Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter reported on Monday that 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl was pursuing a sit-down with the Israeli prime minister for months before Weiss reportedly booked Netanyahu’s Sunday interview personally.

Adding to the already unusual move to give the gig to a CBS correspondent not affiliated with 60 Minutes was a further report in The New York Post on Tuesday that cited a source who told the outlet that Weiss allowed Netanyahu to choose between Stahl and Major Garrett. The outlet reported that Weiss extended the choice to the Israeli prime minister as part of an effort to get him to agree to the interview.

Dropsite reporter Julian Andreone asked Ocasio-Cortez about the CBS chief’s move on Thursday, while also pressing for her opinion on Netanyahu’s threat to sue The New York Times after the paper published a piece alleging “brutal sexual abuse” of Palestinians while held in Israeli detention.

“What are your thoughts on Prime Minister Netanyahu threatening to sue the New York Times over their reporting about the systematic rape in prisons and also getting to choose his interviewer on CBS?” asked Andreone.

“That CBS situation is just a violation, I think, of any journalistic standard,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “So it doesn’t surprise me that Barry Weiss is letting, you know, elected officials—who should be held accountable by journalists and the free media—instead she’s doing things the other way around and letting her friends pick her interviewer.”

Andreone asked if other world leaders would be allowed to “exercise this type of influence” on U.S. media.

“I certainly never heard of something like that happening,” said the congresswoman. “So I can’t name a precedent.”

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