It's no secret that many left-leaning media or "legacy media" outlets, as he has dubbed them, continue to target Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). and his legislative and political agendas. Earlier this week, the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut levied an unsubstantiated accusation against pro-DeSantis influencers online and his former press secretary Christina Pushaw. Two days after the Beast story was published, Press Secretary Bryan Griffin received an email from CNN with a request for comment about Gov. DeSantis' nixing of the AP African-American Studies course more loaded than a washing machine.
"See below for this morning's activism from @CNN. This isn't journalism--it's media malpractice. Taking a critic's dishonest position, legitimizing it with unnamed Experts™, & writing with a standard of 'guilty until proven innocent' does absolutely nothing to inform the public," Griffin tweets.
See below for this morning's activism from @CNN. This isn't journalism--it's media malpractice.
Taking a critic's dishonest position, legitimizing it with unnamed Experts™, & writing with a standard of 'guilty until proven innocent' does absolutely nothing to inform the public. pic.twitter.com/gQYqvTwEyq
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) January 27, 2023
The email comes from CNN writer John Blake, who in his request for comment writes that he has "talked to one of the nation's leading scholars on fascism who, along with another scholar who is an authority on fascism, say that DeSantis' decision echoes similar decisions by fascist dictators to force what one historian calls "collective amnesia" about the past."
Much like Lahut's article, Blake does not name these scholars or sources on fascism he has supposedly spoken to.
Blake might as well have just performed the written equivalent of the "stupid says what?" joke.
Griffin's response is nothing short of brutal.
Response: pic.twitter.com/CNYo5Z335M
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) January 27, 2023
"Your inquiry is absurd and, of course, false," Griffin answers. "There will always be extreme critics, but it is the media's choice whether to give them a platform and legitimize their extremism. If you choose to print such critique and amplify it as a perspective by which we are guilty until proven innocent, it will speak more to the moral bankruptcy and untruthfulness of your outlet than anything else," Griffin's scathing response continunes.
Concluding, he adds, "if this is what CNN considers journalism, it deserves to fail."
Did Mr. Griffin get one of those grenades Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL-7) gave out to his fellow Congressmen?
Besides pushing back against Democratic detractors around the state and nation, DeSantis has gone on the offensive against legacy media outlets since coming into office.
