National review
60 minutes of dishonest DeSantis hit job
There is no more accurate way to describe last night’s 60-minute segment of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis than a political hit. It was an aspersion, a slander, a smear – a calculated and deliberate slander made up for one purpose and one purpose: obscure a scandal in which there is none, and thereby harm DeSantis in 2022 and beyond . Americans who set 60 minutes yesterday are less informed than they were before it aired. The alleged “problem” 60 Minutes highlighted was that the Florida government used the popular grocery chain Publix to sell COVID-19 vaccines, that Publix donated $ 100,000 to the re-election of Governor DeSantis, and last year that the combination of the two represents a consideration. This claim is absurd at first glance. Not only is Publix the largest and most trusted grocery chain in the state of Florida, but the majority of the 831 stores in the state have well-stocked pharmacies where Floridians are used to getting flu shots. Regardless of other logistical considerations, it would have been surprising if Publix hadn’t been a major player in the state’s efforts. It is true that Publix recently gave $ 100,000 for Ron DeSantis’ offer for re-election. It is also true that there was $ 1 million in the Progressive Urban League last year and that in 2018 there was $ 100,000 in democratic campaigns in the state. To believe that there is a connection between this routine behavior and choices made once a century during an unforeseen pandemic is to stretch yourself to the point of rupture. The producers of 60 Minutes know this, which is why they carved out the part of Governor DeSantis’ response that undoubtedly explains why Publix was chosen for his role. On the offensive segment, Sharyn Alfonsi of CBS DeSantis asks, “As you know, Publix donated $ 100,000 to your campaign and then rewarded you with exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in Palm Beach. How can you not pay that for the game? “However, only the first answer from DeSantis is fully displayed. The Governor’s comments were intentionally missing his detailed reply, which outlined how the Florida distribution system works in general and how Publix has worked into this system in particular. In the unventilated part, DeSantis says: First of all, the first pharmacies that existed [the vaccine] was CVS and Walgreens and they were on a long term care mission so they went to the long term care facilities. They got the vaccine in mid-December and went to long-term care facilities in the third week of December for long-term care. That was their mission, that was very important and we trusted that they would do that. When we came in January, we wanted to expand the distribution points. So yeah, you had the counties, you had some transit places, you had hospitals that did a lot, but we wanted to get it into the communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies: Publix, Walmart, obviously CVS, and Walgreens had to end this mission and we said we will use you as soon as you are done with it. None of this was apparent to 60 minute viewers. The show failed to notice that CVS and Walgreens received the vaccine first; it did not explain the difference between the strategy for long-term care facilities and the strategy for the wider population; there was no mention that Walmart was also used in delivering vaccines to the general public; It did not refer to the work DeSantis did to extend the state’s efforts to minority communities. and crucially, it wasn’t clear that Publix was so prominent in the second phase of the vaccinations because it was the first grocery chain to be ready. Instead, the show took two facts that in no way overlap and pretended they were causally related. There is a word for this type of behavior, but it is not “journalism”. The 60-minute attempt was so outrageously dishonest that the director of the Florida Emergency Management Department went on Twitter to convict it shortly after it aired. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again,” wrote Jared Moskowitz. “Publix was recommended by FLSERT [State Emergency Response Team] and HealthyFla [Florida Department of Health] since the other pharmacies were not yet ready to start. Period! Point! Nobody in the governor’s office suggested Publix. It’s just an absolute mistake. “Moskowitz is not an ideological ally of Governor DeSantis. On the contrary: He describes himself as “progressive”, was a Democrat in Florida law until 2019 and has worked in various capacities for Al Gore, Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama. His father Michael is one of the best democratic fundraisers in the state. Unlike the producers of 60 Minutes, however, Jared Moskowitz is not a liar. Unfortunately he is fighting against the tide. The 60 minute lies are now washed and repeated until they are commonly referred to as “facts” in millions of minds across the country. This status will be followed by the oft-repeated lie that Florida “cooked its books” which it did not. From the start of the pandemic, the mainstream press has proven incapable of writing about Florida as anything but a mysterious, godforsaken backwater that somehow managed to stumble through this crisis despite itself. That Florida is in the middle of the death toll list, despite being the fourth oldest population in the country and the destination of choice for young people, doesn’t seem to matter. Also, many commentators don’t seem particularly concerned that Florida did, while it managed to stay largely open. that there have been real, verifiable and undercover scandals elsewhere; that the most populous state in the Union is holding a recall election for its governor because of its COVID response; or that at the moment the 60-minute segment was running, it was Michigan, not Florida, in crisis. In part, this monomaniac failure of imagination was the result of the false reputation Florida enjoys among a certain breed of derisive Acela Corridor journalist. Bubbling under the surface of all of last year’s coverage was an ugly inference: “This guy in this condition? There must be something tricky going on. “Last night, 60 minutes made this clear. As it turned out, however, it wasn’t DeSantis who was playing with the truth. It was CBS.