President Donald Trump broke the mold when it comes to pushing back against rogue media outlets and reporters who tend to keep a progressive slant in their reporting. But while President Trump has famously taken on the media when he first ran for office in 2015, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was also taking shots at “Legacy media” outlets.
During a 2015 speaking engagement with the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee in Daytona Beach, then-senatorial candidate and Rep. Ron DeSantis spoke about the “media bias” and “double standard” the mainstream media held against Conservatives. (Video courtesy of The Floridian's sister website, The Shark Tank)
“This is a major double standard and we have to simply call it what it is,” said then-Rep. DeSantis. “Democrats, when the media does the things with them you have Democrat journalists interviewing Democrat candidates.”
Referring to the presidential debates, DeSantis questioned, “Why do we want the media to pick our candidates they're all Liberal Democrats?
“I don't wanna hear any of this nonsense and we gotta get away from doing these dumb CNBC debates, let us pick our candidate,” added DeSantis.
Since he was elected Governor of Florida in 2018, DeSantis has waged war against “legacy media” outlets and their reporters and editors using his gubernatorial bully pulpit.
DeSantis has also surrounded himself with a group of communications aides who have served as the counterbalance to the slanted reporting coming out of the national media, but more specifically, the Florida press corps, who he recently banned from a state Republican Party event in Hollywood, Florida.
Republicans love when DeSantis lands a media beatdown, but Democrats call him a “bully” for pushing back against reporters the way he does.
In all honesty, some reporters really deserve the beat down from DeSantis.
Just look at the 60 Minutes hit piece that CBS did on DeSantis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While ignoring the facts, a partisan ‘reporter’ at 60 Minutes aired a false report about Florida and our leadership to protect the most vulnerable during COVID,” said Gov. DeSantis, adding,” 60 Minutes and their CBS bosses deceptively edited the video of me destroying their narrative.”
DeSantis expressed that “60 Minutes did what corporate media does,” which is that “they manufactured a false narrative, build a news package around it, and then aired it to millions of people in an attempt to smear one of their political opponents.”
DeSantis is now doubling down on his initial assertion of labeling media reports as “activist journalists” that are working for the Democratic Party. "The facts never matter to the media's lying Democrat propagandists," said DeSantis, affirming that "if the corporate media thinks they can just run all over me with without any response, they are surely mistaken."
Don't expect DeSantis to slow down his criticism of the media anytime soon.
