Elle Reynolds of the Federalist highlights important lessons from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ approach to media outlets.
The propaganda wing of the Democrat Party known as the corporate press is used to smearing, pressuring, and shaming Republicans into piping down. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but we’ll never even know how many times it has.
Got a bill in the works about keeping men out of girls’ sports? Be a shame if the media slandered you as a transphobe while corporate interests put pressure on your campaign coffers. Think you can trust your own eyes more than Anthony Fauci on Covid? It’d be too bad if you got fact-checked and deplatformed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t the only Republican who’s put up a good defense against media bullies, but he has made a brand out of going on the offensive against them. …
… In May 2020, when the Covid-panicked media’s predictions about Florida’s Covid response were already being proven wrong, DeSantis didn’t just call out their lies, he pointed to their motivation for lying.
“Our data is available, our data is transparent. … So, any insinuation otherwise is just typical, partisan narrative trying to be spun,” DeSantis told reporters. “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 and find a boogeyman.” …
… The more partisan the big names in media like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and their ilk become, the more inaccurate it is to call them “mainstream.” Call them the corporate media, the propaganda press, legacy media, or use DeSantis’ nickname for them: “smear merchants.” …
… DeSantis took notes from former President Donald Trump’s penchant for cutting through forgettable politician-speak and leaning into one-liners and comebacks. A witty line will help people remember what you said, and that’s not limited to media interactions.
