Topic: Media Research Center
Having labored to defend Ron DeSantis from his botched campaign launch and an NAACP travel advisory for Florida (and even his alleged comedy chops), the Media Research Center's DeSantis Defense Brigade was kept plenty busy. The Brigade was kept busy throughout late May and early June:
- Orlando Sentinel Hits DeSantis ‘Hard Line Against LGBTQ,’ Transgenders, Minorities
- MSNBC Agrees DeSantis Is ‘Literally’ a '21st Century George Wallace'
- DeSantis and Scott Get Nasty Welcome to 2024 Race from Leftist Media
- Scarborough: DeSantis 'Depraved' for Dumping Migrants in Freezing Weather--Except He Didn't
- MSNBC's Claire McCaskill Mocks Trump In Ankle Bracelet, DeSantis in 'Snow White' Boots
- NBC Journo Plays P.R. Assistant for Newsom Wanting to Arrest DeSantis, Pass Gun Grab
- WOKE Tony Awards: Slam on 'Grand Wizard' Ron DeSantis, Non-Binary Winners
Days after that botched launch, it was still salty about it. Clay Waters complained in a May 30 post:
As the only network morning show Tuesday to cover the 2024 campaign, ABC’s Good Morning America again did the bidding of parent company Disney by bashing Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Unsurprisingly, they continuing to fixate five days later on the bandwidth issues with his 2024 presidential campaign launch on Twitter, whined his interviews have been with conservative talk radio hots, and painted him as one of many top-line candidates.
[...]
Chief Washington correspondent and lucrative Trump author Jonathan Karl noted Tuesday marks the start of a four-day tour for DeSantis through the first three voting states (Iowa, New Hampshire, then South Carolina) before throwing jabs.
“The announcement was plagued with technical difficulties, but DeSantis — the DeSantis team claims that they raised more than $8 million just on the first day,” Karl whined, seeming to be one of the few still obsessed with the less-than-ideal launch and questioning the veracity of Team DeSantis’s fundraising claims.
Karl again poo-pooed DeSantis for not having “actually interacted with voters since he announced he was running for president last week” and, when it comes to interviews, he bemoaned the Florida governor did “a flurry of” them, but mostly “with conservative talk shows.”
One word for Karl and the liberal forlorn DeSantis won’t appear on their airwaves for what would be a trap: Cope.
Waters offered no evidence that ABC "did the bidding" of Disney by reporting on DeSantis. He came more aggressively to DeSantis' defense in a post the next day:
In fact, Florida's COVID death rate is higher than that of New York and the 18th highest in the country.PBS reporter Lisa Desjardins gave Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis a chilly welcome to the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday, before his Twitter-hosted interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Desjardins included positive details about the new candidate, standard practice when introducing new candidates. But she poisoned the paragraph with the unsubstantiated allegation that DeSantis oversaw “beatings and forced feedings of prisoners” while stationed at Guantanamo Bay, complete with a still of an article making the allegation:
[...]
Desjardins tapped into the lazy media smear of DeSantis sacrificing Floridians with irresponsible Covid policy in the name of business:
[...]
The voiceover was accompanied by two shots: a grim hospital scene cutting to two women dining alfresco, a huge margarita on the table between them -- as if people were dying in Florida just so people could go out and drink?
And “wave of deaths” compared to what? Florida did permit its residents to get back to their livelihoods quickly, yet three years later the state’s pandemic toll trails that of long-shuttered New York, even though then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was praised for his authoritarian handling of Covid. Florida’s numbers look especially good when one considers the state’s disproportionately aged population.
