Karol Markowicz: Desantis Derangement Syndrome: The Media Get Even More Unhinged

For those of us with already-low expectations for the leftist media, they’ve been working to lower that bar even further in their Florida Governor coverage Ron DeSantis.

You’d think these press organizations would have learned from their Trump Derangement Syndrome, when they burned trust in so many institutions, including and specifically their own, trying to fight President Donald Trump. Instead, they’ve simply substituted DeSantis in their activist, bile-filled, often-totally-wrong rants.

Pew polls in 2021 showed that Republicans have a higher percentage of Republicans who are able to vote. “some trust in national news organizations” Since 2016, the number of people who were ill has been halved, from 70% to 35%. This number fell from 76% to 58% among all adults.

That’s not a coincidence: 2016 was when these outlets gave up on trying to be remotely fair — something they’d rarely achieved in the first place — and began to openly discuss how to “handle” Trump. They settled on “Everything is a Russian-disinformation plot” They pretended that an enemy country controlled them. They just moved on after they realized that it was all a liar.

Unable to run that playbook on DeSantis, they’re trying a new tack. He’s an authoritarian!

CNN reporter John Blake sent this note to DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, asking for comment after the A woke high school class was blocked by the government: “I’ve 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 made by fascist dictators to force what one historian calls ‘collective amnesia’ about the past.”

I’m writing a piece calling the governor a fascist, care to comment? What length of time have you been beating your wife for?

Griffin posted Blake’s request to Twitter, pulling back the curtain on how hit pieces calling America’s Most popular governor A “fascist” get made.

The Daily Beast published an entirely fictional account of DeSantis paying influencers. “bot farms” Follow us on Twitter.

Lindsey Curnutte, communications director for DeSantis’ political team, categorically denied this claim, which the Beast has yet to retract, and told me: “Enthusiasm for Gov. DeSantis is generated through his relentless work to keep Floridians free, not paying for retweets. We do not pay ‘influencers’ to tweet nor do we pay for ‘bot farms.’” Curnutte was added “People do that?”

It’s not just the Beast and CNN; somewhat more respected media organizations have gotten in on the act too. The New York Times reported breathlessly that DeSantis got the College Board to modify lessons in its Advanced Placement African American Studies course, which included topics such as “queer theory” A leftist-only view on ending prisons. The Times reports that there will be “no more critical race theory,” It is also interesting to note that the Times has previously stated that CRT is not used in K-12 education. Whoops. It would be easier if facts and consistency were more important.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was a tweeter. She forced schools to close for an inordinate amount of time, which most harmed black children. “How can Gov DeSantis erase all of Black history?”

State law is already in effect Florida school boards must teach black historyDeSantis made this clear on many occasions. However, Weingarten, an activist, will ignore this fact and her media friends, will follow. They don’t actually care about education Or nonsense such as intersectionality being taught under the name of “Black history” — they want to A potential Republican nominee for 2024 could be hurtEveryone knows this.

They also don’t bother doing that old-fashioned fact-checking news organizations used to do. The Washington Post published a viral video showing a Florida classroom without bookshelves. It was reported that teachers were afraid of being arrested under a new Florida law. The Post was forced to issue a correction — teachers will Not actually face felony charges for having bad books on their shelves — but it’s exactly this kind of hysteria the media is aiming at DeSantis.

I have yet to meet a parent who believes that scanning pornography books before giving access to their children is a bad idea. This is actually a serious concern, as parents continue to scan books for pornography. Discovering pornography in their children’s school libraries and don’t want that.

DeSantis, for his part, talks directly with Floridians. He calmly explains the policies that Floridians support despite all the media hype. He arrives at his press conferences well-armed with facts, and does not allow the media to get the best of him. His team and he have taught a master class on how to deal with dishonest journalists.

But they shouldn’t have to. Even those who don’t share his politics should speak up and say the coverage is absurd and lack of trust in news organizations has hurt us all. But they won’t because there are elections to win.

Twitter: @Karol