AOC pretended to be ‘journalist’ at Standing Rock protests Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez often complains about journalists — except when she’s pretending to be one. AOC admitted to getting access to press passes at the Dakota Access pipeline protests at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in a 2016 Facebook Live video. A Facebook user asked her about what media had been present. “We tried to get press passes and at the time they wouldn’t give them to us,” AOC’s friend, actress Maria Swisher, says on tape. That didn’t stop the then-bartender.