Area Expert™ Tom Nichols is annoyed that Ron DeSantis calling out 60 Minutes for 'fake narrative' will make voters think media pushes fake narratives

“60 Minutes” is still getting throttled today for this utterly shameless hit piece on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis:

Campaign finance reports obtained by 60 Minutes show that weeks before Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a partnership with Publix grocery stores to distribute the vaccine in its pharmacies, Publix donated $100,000 to his PAC. https://t.co/bS3ZBeET1W pic.twitter.com/BSUlpVbXSP

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 4, 2021

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Publix says there is no connection between the supermarket chain's campaign contributions and its partnership with the state to administer the vaccine. The company's full statement can be read here: https://t.co/gyrW9hYPTg

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 4, 2021

"What you're saying is wrong," Gov DeSantis tells Sharyn Alfonsi in response to a question about whether the Publix grocery store chain gained influence through a campaign donation on his behalf. "It's wrong. It's a fake narrative," he says. https://t.co/gyrW9hYPTg pic.twitter.com/5rBq7v5VOA

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 4, 2021

To call what they did dishonesty and “deceptive editing” would be a gross understatement:

Wow. And it appears that @60Minutes edited the clip to cut out several minutes of @GovRonDeSantis giving extensive details showing just how wrong this narrative is..

Here is the full clip with the question starting ~1:40: https://t.co/bbQ2o33kWn

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 2, 2021

It appears the above YouTube has been set to private for now but Daily Wire has a full transcript including all the parts that 60 Minutes edited out: https://t.co/ZsXi5sLvLN

— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 5, 2021

The thing is, guys like DeSantis know their voters. All he has to say is "fake narrative," and he knows that enough angry, resentful people will say "See? Fake narrative." The reason politicians like him do things like this is because, in modern America, it works for them. https://t.co/mUmtVIfmC7

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 5, 2021

That’s seriously Tom Nichols’ takeaway from this: that Ron DeSantis calling a fake narrative a fake narrative will prompt a “fake narrative” narrative. And that’s bad because … well, it just is, OK?

Also, it's a fake narrative. https://t.co/L6DG4HH9Yv

— Business Master Crapplefratz (@Crapplefratz) April 5, 2021

Well then you clearly didn’t see his whole 2-3 minute response to her, which 60 minutes simply cut out so they could push this narrative some more. Why don’t they mention Publix gave 100k to local dems as well? Some of you people clearly need to come back to reality.

— Kynan brown (@KynanB33) April 5, 2021

Well, he's helped by the fact that this is a fake narrative. The idea that leaning on the most popular grocery store chain in the state to help administer vaccines is some sort of scandal is beyond laughable. https://t.co/nJmM8QWmeO

— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) April 5, 2021

Tom, this is simply not factual or evidence based.

The reality is the evidence does not support the @60Minutes claim. Several experts, even Democrats, agree their claim is false.

Why are you ignoring the experts?

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 5, 2021

Honestly have no idea how people blindly accept this, with this kind of info out there.

Skepticism is a very important trait. https://t.co/hFUiV5R5v0

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) April 5, 2021

I guess with the ability to use this new fangled internet where we can hear the entire exchange, Tom thinks we should still believe the edited version? I am not angry. And DeSantis is not wrong. https://t.co/SjanuSQ1gV

— Stacey (@ScotsFyre) April 5, 2021

This is an expert-like position that pretends to be an against the grain take, but actually reveals the person hasn’t followed the story. At all. It focuses in how DeSantis frames the argument instead of the facts. Pseudo-intellectualism. https://t.co/s7ah7KkGDZ

— Daniel Vaughan (@dvaughanCI) April 5, 2021

Tom, your confirmation bias is extremely easy to manipulate, which might not have even been worth commenting on if you didn't walk around acting like it wasn't. https://t.co/qapZizlbCf

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) April 5, 2021

https://twitter.com/PartymanRandy/status/1378916415017779203

The fact that you don’t see this entire segment for the very thin hit piece that it is, has finally convinced me that Trump did, indeed, break you. Find the entire exchange and spend 2 minutes vetting the merit of the accusation.

— tallfatperson (@tallfatperson) April 5, 2021

The death of expertise was a suicide. https://t.co/e3EwIl9uzj

— Chief Impact Officer BT (@back_ttys) April 5, 2021

Suicide of expertise. https://t.co/jKbtem2aZK

— You want to talk to me? I’ll be at the beach. (@DoorsOff) April 5, 2021

Of course this gullible rube fell for the 60 Minutes piece. It's just so perfect. *chef's kiss* https://t.co/nQtYn4x3SP

— Eric Spencer (@JustEric) April 5, 2021

The thing is that "principled" guys like Nichols know their followers will eat up anything they say regardless of how most of the time it's total BS: ?? https://t.co/S6SpaRFwNM

— Sister Toldjah Le Pew ? (@sistertoldjah) April 5, 2021

One of the nation's foremost Experts in regurgitating Dem talking points about angry, gullible Republicans for an audience of angry, gullible Dems https://t.co/NlogCH02tA

— Jason Hart (@jasonahart) April 5, 2021

Ah weird. Tom weighed in on something as an expert but somehow got the entire thing wrong again. https://t.co/8HCZizIy3L

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 5, 2021