‘Why is the Media So Desperate to Paint Florida as a Covid-Ridden Wasteland?’ Kennedy and Colby Hall Say DeSantis Winning Press Fight
Fox Business host Kennedy on Monday spoke with Mediaite’s own Colby Hall about the backlash CBS News and 60 Minutes faced for their story over the weekend hitting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over vaccine distribution.
“Ah, the lefty media. They’ve been searching high and low for a scandal to condemn Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and now they’re just making one up,” said Kennedy to open the segment. She began by summarizing the whole 60 Minutes affair, and included the latest wrinkle from a Democrat in Florida, who bashed CBS good for their attempted DeSantis takedown.
After playing the clip of DeSantis giving his full and thorough outline of the actual events leading to the very successful vaccine distribution by Publix, Kennedy spoke to Hall about the media’s angle.
“So why is the media so desperate to paint Florida as a Covid-ridden wasteland, despite all evidence to the contrary,” she asked rhetorically, by way of introduction.
“This drives me crazy because it is a non-story,” said Kennedy. “I don’t care if Publix donated to Ron Desantis’ campaign, they donate to Democrats as well. They do tend to donate a little bit more to Republicans, but that is not what this was about.”
“The full explanation he gave laid that out,” she said, “and it was very disingenuous and dishonest of CBS to air the edited clip that made it seem like he was in fact just working with Palm Beach County, favoring Publix — which by the way has administered doses in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.”
“Well you know, I’m sort of dead inside. But even this shocks me,” said Hall. “I have to tell you, I don’t know what they were thinking.”
Hall noted it’s not just reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, but the story had to go through executives, producers, researchers and more, all of whom vetted and greenlit the story and the editing. You never edit in a way that changes “materially the meaning of what’s being said, and that’s exactly what happened here,” he said.
Hall noted that DeSantis is a “bogeyman” to the left, and the CBS News story followed that lead.
“So what I think what we saw here with 60 Minutes is exactly what he said. They had decided that they were going to paint him in this way, and they weren’t going to let the facts get in the way,” said Hall. “And you know, it just plays to every stereotype possible that the media has a bias, and it’s unfortunate because it’s just such a self-own.”
The two discussed the governor’s popularity among Republicans, which has been growing considerably, and addressed the success of the vaccine distribution in Florida, which has a dense population of higher-risk, older residents.
Circling back to the controversy, Hall said that “the big winner in this story actually is Ron DeSantis, because A, it underlines or buttresses his argument that the media is out to get him, but it also shines a spotlight on the job that he’s doing.”
Kennedy closed by noting that people who weren’t previously familiar with DeSantis are now hearing him lay out an argument. “It’s like, ‘oh, this guy is actually making a lot of sense and seems like he kinda cares,'” she said.
“That’s right,” agreed Hall.
Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox Business Network.
