Vanity Fair’s got a new piece out all about the media’s ongoing struggle to penetrate Ron DeSantis’ orbit:
Ron DeSantis keeps the media at arm’s length—but as 2024 buzz picks up, news organizations are jockeying for journalists who may give them a leg up. https://t.co/u8raOVaWqz
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 24, 2023
It can be particularly challenging to report inside DeSantis’s orbit, which makes the jockeying by news organizations all the more competitive. For one, it’s hard to source up inside an operation that appears inherently distrustful of journalists. “It’s almost like they’re running a straight-up opposition campaign against the media,” a political reporter at a major news outlet said of DeSantis’s press strategy. (For a Vanity Fair story earlier this month on DeSantis’s media strategy, a spokesperson referenced recent pieces on DeSantis’s right-wing, culture-war crusade in accusing this magazine of “dressing up wild leftist talking points as truthful analysis and reporting.”)
Despite the fact that Trump has bashed the media for years, he—and others in his orbit—seemed to have reporters on speed dial during his chaotic presidency. DeSantis’s guardedness with the press, another political reporter said, has been “a little bit of a culture shock” for reporters who got used to “swimming in leaks” during the Trump years. “We all took advantage of the knife fighting over at the White House—that’s how everyone got their leaks,” they said.
“DeSantisworld doesn’t leak because DeSantisworld basically doesn’t really exist,” a political reporter familiar with Florida politics and DeSantis’s operation told me. “It’s like four, five people who know what’s going on. That’s going to change as he starts to build out the organization.” (DeSantis is known to keep a tight circle, with his wife, Casey, considered his “closest confidant and adviser.”) “It’s one guy who doesn’t have much of a crew around him, and part of his secret sauce is to poke a thumb in the eye of the media,” the reporter added, suggesting news outlets are going to “need someone who is able to talk the language of Republicans to deal with them.”
Tough break, Vanity Fair. Hey, Team DeSantis, if you’re listening … can you throw them a bone? DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin, do you have anything you can give them, just to make them feel special?
Or maybe you can just mock the hell out of them:
Here's a laughable piece from @VanityFair on the outside looking wistfully in. It's "challenging" for you to report because you don't report – you lie and spin.
We have no need for the left's "New Journalism."
They did get one part right: https://t.co/AiixoNSQuD pic.twitter.com/FUet3HvRLb
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 24, 2023
It’s almost exactly like that!
Appears?
I mean, they didn’t need to use such a speculative word.
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) March 24, 2023
We can confirm.
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 24, 2023
They have confirmed. On several occasions.
And yet the media have continued to learn absolutely zero lessons from any of it.
Shorter @VanityFair — you don't leak to journalists? You're an enemy of the people! https://t.co/ebvrNap0TH
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 24, 2023
https://twitter.com/DeSantis_Daily/status/1639265092414980104
The Governor's Communications Team has been widely recognized from many for being the best in the business.
Much to the chagrin of corporate media. https://t.co/ZU2u8XwQiW— Frog Capital (@FrogNews) March 24, 2023
At this point, there’s really only one comment to give the MSM when they come banging on Ron DeSantis’ door:
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 24, 2023
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Related:
Ron DeSantis’ campaign responds to The View’s gracious invite with a gracious mic drop
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary gives Yahoo News a quote for their ‘Don’t Say Gay’ story
Mic drop: DeSantis spox Bryan Griffin shares campaign’s reply to future NBC/MSNBC interview requests
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