Fox News can’t stop talking about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), even when the freshman member of U.S. Congress has nothing to do with the topic the news network is discussing. News outlets like Vice, Vanity Fair, and the Atlantic have all written about the conservative fixation with Ocasio-Cortez, with Vice dubbing the Bronx-based bartender-turned-politician the “perfect grist for the right-wing media mill.”
Media Matters decided to dig into the phenomenon, reviewing every mention of the congresswoman on Fox News and Fox Business over the course of 42 days, and discovered that the networks talked about AOC every single day, mentioning her at least 3,181 times.
Earlier, Media Matters found that Fox News host Sean Hannity was the most fixated on AOC. In January, he mentioned her by name 46 times, which they point out is more than twice per show. Even host Tucker Carlson only managed to squeeze in 16 mentions of Ocasio-Cortez.
Lest you think the networks merely love talking politics, they mentioned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) only a combined 27 times and ran a whopping total of zero segments that focused on the majority leader, even though he wields a lot more power than a freshman representative. As Ocasio-Cortez might say, it sure seems like “obsesión.”
The name checks are fully intentional, too. Host Stuart Varney acknowledged to Media Matters that they “have an AOC segment every single day, almost every single hour. She’s good for our ratings.”
Regardless of your political stance, Ocasio-Cortez is a 29-year-old woman in a new job who has a Fox News host if not an entire network fixated on her every move while she copes with a reportedly steady stream of death threats. That has to be overwhelming, no matter how old or accomplished you are.
You can check out the six-week obsession condensed into a three-minute video below.
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