Watch Ron DeSantis Tear Into Media Over 'Partisan Narrative' in COVID Coverage
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tore into the media on Wednesday over their “typical partisan narrative” about the coronavirus ravaging his state because of his decision to reopen.
“You’ve got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like New York,” he said to reporters about the partisan coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Florida.
“’Wait two weeks, Florida’s going to be next.’ Just like Italy, wait two weeks. Well, hell, we’re eight weeks away from that and it hasn’t happened. Not only do we have a lower death rate — well, we have way lower deaths generally — we have a lower death rate than the Acela corridor, D.C., everyone up there.
“We have a lower death rate than the Midwest — Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio. But even in our region — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia — Florida has the lower death rate,” he said.
DeSantis says any insinuation Florida doesn’t have best data is typical partisan narrative.
“You’ve got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like NY.”https://t.co/jTzJmKk8X0 pic.twitter.com/1sGw3Z1P3V
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) May 20, 2020
“And I was the number one landing spot from tens of thousands of people leaving the number one hot zone in the world to come to my state.
“So we’ve succeeded and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative, it challenges their assumption. So they’ve got to try to find a boogeyman.
“Maybe it is that there are black helicopters circling the Department of Health. If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you,” DeSantis continued.
The governor is spot on. If you look at the media coverage of New York and Florida, the disparity is glaring.
Florida has one of the highest populations of elderly people in the United States and still its coronavirus numbers are low compared to New York, a state with similar demographics.
DeSantis’ poll numbers have been tanking while Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has enjoyed a tremendous rise in popularity.
That comes in spite of the fact that, as of this writing, Florida has roughly 46,000 cases and 2,052 deaths with a population of 21 million and 4.4 million seniors.
Contrast that with New York, which, as of this writing, has approximately 195,000 cases and nearly 16,000 deaths with a population of 19 million and an elderly population of 3.2 million.
Which state looks like a success to you? Regardless, the media has praised Cuomo and harshly criticized DeSantis.
“If you doubt the power of the press, recognize that Gov. Ron DeSantis handled covid-19 in Florida in excellent fashion, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled it nearly as badly as humanly possible, yet DeSantis has dropped in polls and Cuomo is at the height of popularity,” conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.
If you doubt the power of the press, recognize that Gov. Ron DeSantis handled covid-19 in Florida in excellent fashion, while Gov. Andrew Cuomo handled it nearly as badly as humanly possible, yet DeSantis has dropped in polls and Cuomo is at the height of popularity.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 8, 2020
Every night on CNN and MSNBC the gloom and doom parade continues. States like Florida that are reopening successfully are destroying that narrative.
The coronavirus crisis is something to be taken seriously and precautions should be taken, but destroying the economy is not going to help.
And the consistent media assault on the Republican governors who have chosen to reopen their states is designed to do one thing: help Democrats win.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
