Was the economics degree of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recalled? No, that's not true: the story was put out by a satire website but was believed by several people and at least one website copied it without indicating it came from a humor website.
The story originated from an article published by The Babylon Bee on April 2, 2019 titled "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Economics Degree Recalled" (archived here) which opened:
WASHINGTON, D.C.--After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent a few minutes on Twitter lamenting the price of a croissant at an airport, linking it to the need for a higher minimum wage for some reason, an independent degree quality control board issued an emergency recall on her economics degree.
Basic Economic Understanding Bureau officials burst into the congresswoman's office and confiscated her economics degree early Tuesday morning "for the safety of the nation." They found it hanging on the wall next to a hammer & sickle flag. They tore it down and returned it to Boston University for safekeeping.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Economics Degree Recalled
WASHINGTON, D.C.--After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent a few minutes on Twitter lamenting the price of a croissant at an airport, linking it to the need for a higher minimum wage for some reason, an independent degree quality control board issued an emergency recall on her economics degree.Basic Economic Understanding Bureau officials burst into the congr ...
There is of course no Basic Economic Understanding Bureau but the tweet about the croissant the story is mocking is real:
Croissants at LaGuardia are going for SEVEN DOLLARS A PIECE 😱
-- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 1, 2019
Yet some people think getting a whole hour of personal, dedicated human labor for $15 is too expensive??
But "The Babylon Bee" comes with following dislaimer on every page:
The Babylon Bee is Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire.
That didn't stop at least one website from copying the story without mentioning that it was a joke (archived here):
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Economics Degree Recalled
Via The Babylon Bee WASHINGTON, D.C.-After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent a few minutes on Twitter lamenting the price of a croissant at an airport, linking it to the need for a higher minimum wage for some reason, an independent degree quality control board issued an emergency recall on her economics degree.
And several people in social media comments or tweets seemed to share the story as if it were real:
Well, either @AOC hasn't been making good use of it, or she really didn't learn anything in college other than liberal victimization theory https://t.co/h8YoaPmN7J @AOCPress
-- Oregon Conservative (@ORConservative) April 2, 2019
We wrote about babylonbee.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
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