There were dueling articles out on Friday on fired state health department worker Rebekah Jones, both involving leaked messages with Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who ran Florida’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
First up is the Miami Herald that painted Jones in a rather positive light:
BREAKING: A behind the scenes look at @HealthyFla in the era of whistleblower Rebekah Jones –– told through secret texts between @GeoRebekah and @JaredEMoskowitz , and exclusively obtained docs filed in Jones' whistleblower case, including DOH responses https://t.co/LhBWhInvdc
— Sarah Blaskey 🏝 (@Blaskey_S) June 4, 2021
CNN’s Chris Cuomo then used the article to push back on what he called “right wing fringe attacks” on his frequent guest:
For those invested in right wing fringe attacks on Rebekah Jones, here is a well-researched piece on what is and is not true. https://t.co/jiVkUy0CII
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 4, 2021
She was on his show five times:
Andrew Cuomo's brother, who brought fired dashboard designer Rebekah Jones onto the program FIVE TIMES, has returned to defending her once more. https://t.co/s2uKJiqygt
— Max (@MaxNordau) June 4, 2021
Yep:
why is @CNN promoting a conspiracy theory? https://t.co/3BYMuBzU0X
— kaitlin, congressional fashion police (@thefactualprep) June 5, 2021
Cuomo just keeps getting worse:
Almost as embarrassing as all the interviews with his brother https://t.co/wKIBGjcEhD
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) June 5, 2021
Jones even thanked Cuomo for sharing the article:
Thank you, @ChrisCuomo and @CNN for sticking with facts. https://t.co/QXi90jwrmO
— Rebekah Jones #Vaccinated (@GeoRebekah) June 4, 2021
But what Cuomo didn’t share was the second of the two articles out yesterday, this one from Politico that interviewed Moskowitz after the Miami Herald article dropped:
The Democratic former head of Florida’s emergency management department breaks his silence on the conspiracy theories, disinformation & misinformation spread by Rebekah Jones https://t.co/cckcCZiIs2
— POLITICO (@politico) June 4, 2021
The Politico article is important because it comes in response to the Miami Herald article and those leaked texts that Jones allegedly gave to the paper:
Moskowitz decided to speak out publicly after Jones leaked their Twitter exchanges to The Miami Herald. Jones also shared images of encrypted Signal messages between her and Moskowitz that would have disappeared, but she took screen-captured pictures of the private exchanges and also gave them to the paper. Moskowitz said he doesn’t have copies of those. It’s unclear why Jones shared her messages.
Maybe Cuomo can tell us if he thinks Politico reporters Marc Caputo and Gary Fineout are a “right wing fringe” attack?
“Everything she did was disinformation.”
—@JaredEMoskowitz, the Democrat who led FL’s emergency management dept, breaks his silence on the conspiracy theories, disinformation & misinformation spread by @georebekah https://t.co/btJ0bX50CA
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) June 4, 2021
In his interview with Politico, Moskowitz accused Jones of “running a disinformation campaign”:
Jared Moskowitz, the progressive Democrat who ran Florida’s COVID-19 response at the department of emergency management, describes Rebekah Jones as “running a disinformation campaign.” https://t.co/f1aDxtGmLE
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
And said “everything she did was misinformation”:
Moskowitz: “With a platform of 400,000 Twitter followers, her reputation for bullying people on social media and her running a disinformation campaign that the national media echoed . . . everything she did was misinformation.” https://t.co/f1aDxtGmLE
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
Moskowitz went on to say that “there was no doubt [what Jones did’ was an effort to harm the governor”:
Moskowitz: “There was no doubt [what Jones did] was an effort to harm the governor.”
More Moskowitz: “She had a dedicated following – and whether it was fact or fiction – treated everything she said as if it were in the Old Testament."https://t.co/f1aDxtGmLE— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
Cuomo, at the very least, she read the Politico article, no?
It's actually quite amusing. This happened because Jones violated her promise and leaked all of her DMs with Moskowitz to the Miami Herald. Jones was under the impression they were friends. They are not. Moskowitz was merely trying to find who was leaking information to her.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
And the Miami Herald has some explaining to do, to:
This is correct. Jones keeps feeding her lies to friendly writers at the Miami Herald, who, for some reason, are happy to destroy their reputations by indulging and amplifying Jones's relentless conflation, misdirection, and outright falsehoods. https://t.co/hWAeQOEsh6
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
And Politico reporter Gary Fineout notes that the messages Jones leaked don’t even match up with the Herald’s reporting:
So Jones leaked thousands of private messages to the Miami Herald, and *still* had to make up quotes to try to make them interesting. https://t.co/gqTjXjnwX9
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) June 4, 2021
Over to you, CNN and Chris Cuomo:
The fact that CNN and other outlets treated Rebekah Jones as a credible expert says a lot about how politicized and dishonest most of the media's Covid coverage has been. It was obvious from the start that she's an attention-craving fabulist. https://t.co/wfKbmr1rPM
— Jim Meigs (@jamesbmeigs) June 4, 2021
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