After the 60 Minutes segment accusing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) of committing “pay-to-play” with Publix Supermarkets, Governor DeSantis slammed 60 minutes for airing what he called “a big lie.” A number of lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, subsequently slammed 60 Minutes for the segment, and now Twitter is labeling (censors) any coverage of Governor DeSantis’ response to 60 Minutes as “sensitive content.”
At least that is the case for The Floridian
Shortly after the Governor held a press conference responding to the allegations, DeSantis expressed that 60 Minutes was lying to the public by saying that somehow “Publix had exclusive rights” to distributing vaccines as part of his “Seniors First” vaccine rollout. The Floridian covered the press conference, but Twitter has deemed the coverage “sensitive content.” Note: Youtube has pulled down DeSantis' video.
In response to the censorship, Javier Manjarres, Publisher of The Floridian, questioned how his coverage could be considered “sensitive content.”
“It appears as if Twitter is continuing to carry the water for compromised media outlets that have been outed for showing their biased ‘reporting’ of any Republican they feel is a threat to their overall political and ideological agenda,” Manjarres said.
Moreover, he cited that the Floridian was solely covering the words shared by DeSantis, explaining that he was “outlining what Gov. DeSantis said in his recent press conference, where he took apart the false narrative that 60 Minutes and Florida Democrats pushed was factually based,” adding that “we used DeSantis’ own words for God’s sake.”
The Governor’s vaccine rollout has received criticism from a number of Florida Democrats, and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), a potential 2022 gubernatorial rival, has even called for the FBI to “step in” and investigate the Governor’s handling of distributing the vaccine.
Still, Governor DeSantis maintains his innocence, expressing that the state of Florida is leading the charge in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. For him, 60 Minutes spent “three months trying to dig up dirt, and the best they could come up with was a half-baked conspiracy theory.”
