Margaret Sullivan calls out MSM for their fawning coverage of DeSantis and his 'rightwing agenda'

This dispatch on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes to us from Margaret Sullivan, who is evidently writing from her second home on Earth 2. We’re not exactly when she made the flying leap from the Washington Post to the Guardian (we honestly don’t really care), but she’s got a new piece for the Guardian warning that “Ron DeSantis is just getting started with his rightwing agenda,” and, guys, instead of calling him out, the media are just lavishing him with praise!

Ron DeSantis is just getting started with his rightwing agenda. That should worry us all, yet the media mostly fawns over him. My latest in ⁦@GuardianUS⁩ https://t.co/oJBnV8AKgc

— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) March 10, 2023

Sullivan writes:

That’s why it’s appalling to see the media lavish him with so much fawning coverage. Fox News has put its calamitous love affair with Donald Trump on ice while it swoons over his younger rival.

DeSantis enjoys glowing treatment from the mainstream press, too. All too predictably, many of the headlines from his recent State of the State speech not only centered on presidential politics but also magnified his boasts. Here’s a skepticism-free example from CNBC:

“‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis touts state record and fuels 2024 speculation.”

The media should be delving into the substance of that record, including the kitchen-table economic issues that have nothing to do with performative anti-woke nonsense. Instead of letting DeSantis play at will on his favorite field of divisive social issues, reporters should dig into his war on teachers’ unions, like trying to limit how they can collect dues and where they conduct union business. Reporters might even point out that this runs counter to Republican claims that they are now the workers’ party.

Go figure that Sullivan’s specific example of the MSM going easy on DeSantis is a rare genuinely objective headline from CNBC. You’d be hard-pressed to find a headline from an MSM outlet that doesn’t try to accuse DeSantis of something nefarious or deliberately misrepresent something he says. Like, say, referring to the Parental Rights in Education bill as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is exactly what Sullivan does right here without noting that the phrase “don’t say gay” or even just the word “gay” does not appear anywhere in the bill: