Daily Beast editor Justin Baragona has apologized for accusing Fox News host Tucker Carlson of adding “googly eyes” to a photo of progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The wide-eyed stare, it turned out, was all her own.
Carlson ripped into Ocasio-Cortez in a segment of his show on Wednesday night, slating the New York progressive for claiming earlier that day that her ‘Green New Deal’ environmental legislation would have stopped the blackouts currently affecting the state of Texas. Accompanying the segment was an unflattering screengrab of AOC staring wide-eyed into the middle distance.
Baragona assumed that the image was doctored to make Ocasio-Cortez look ridiculous, and took to Twitter to accuse Carlson’s producers of adding “googly eyes” to the picture of the congresswoman.
He was soon told that the image wasn’t doctored, and that AOC’s eyes were completely unaltered.
Baragona issued an apology later that night, acknowledging that the picture has been in circulation since May 2018, and admitting that he “absolutely deserved to be” caught out. “If you don't want to be IT, make sure you don't send out factually inaccurate tweets that can be easily verified and debunked,” he added.
The Daily Beast editor has a habit of antagonizing journalists and pundits he disagrees with. After he mocked Glenn Greenwald’s move to Substack last month, the ex-Intercept journalist called Baragona “a media person trapped at a shitty liberal website with no journalistic accomplishments.” Carlson is a regular target of Baragona too, and after accusing his team of getting crafty with the “googly eyes,” he declared that the Fox News host’s upcoming video series will be “just as racist as his show but with automatic weapons.”
This time, however, Baragona ate his humble pie with grace.
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