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
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:
The Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as “don’t say gay”, prevents teachers from talking about gender identity and sexual orientation in some elementary-school grades.
The solitary examples in this article of the the media "fawning" over DeSantis are… Fox News and a single headline from CNBC. https://t.co/Qelyv3rdl9
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) March 10, 2023
Margaret Sullivan is lying about Ron DeSantis, and she’s lying about how the media cover him:
- NPR’s coverage of Ron DeSantis’ war on ‘gender-affirming care’ for kids seems just a tad biased
- NBC News is happy to help push narrative that Ron DeSantis is an authoritarian fascist dictator
- Presidential historian Michael Beschloss says Gov. ‘Rick’ DeSantis strives to be a ‘local Mussolini’
- Reporter asks for comment on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ anti-black, anti-immigrant, and anti-women agenda
Margaret Sullivan thinks we’re stupid.
"The media mostly fawns over [DeSantis]."🤔
Currently wondering if Margaret only watches Fox News exclusively, or if this is yet another intentional application of "don't believe your lying eyes"? https://t.co/qufXmZtJC7
— Na'linda (@MzBlckSheep) March 10, 2023
Yes.
I think you and I read very different media.
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) March 10, 2023
"yet the media mostly fawns over him"
Only an opinion this bad and this wrong could be printed in The Guardian.
— Jim Stinson (@jimstinson) March 10, 2023
Snide and out of touch as always.
— Doctor of Coding Thinkology (@bradcundiff) March 10, 2023
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