The standard operating procedure for Republicans and other victims of the corrupt corporate media should always be to immediately shut down their lies and refuse to engage further. Yet, over and over, Republicans who are regularly smeared and hoaxed by the leftist media agree to engage them under the premise that they are acting in good faith. That’s a mistake Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his team have proved they know not to make.
Just this week, NBC’s longtime purveyor of propaganda Andrea Mitchell wrongfully claimed during an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that the Republican governor “says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren.”
DeSantis’ office didn’t just shame Mitchell for spreading lies about the governor and Florida law, which requires students to learn about slavery, Jim Crow, the civil rights movement, and more. The governor’s press secretary Bryan Griffin also called out NBC for being “maliciously intent on deceiving people” and threatened to cut off the media giant’s access to information, comment, and interviews from the governor, who is one of the top polling Republicans for the 2024 presidential ticket.
In an email addressed to “all of the bookers and producers reaching out to our office from NBC News and MSNBC,” Griffin wrote that the governor’s office will give “no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates” until Mitchell “corrects the blatant lie” and “NBC and its affiliates display a consistent track record of truthful reporting.”
“This will be the standard response from our office until @mitchellreports apologizes and your track record improves,” Griffin emphasized on Twitter.
Instead of issuing a correction as DeSantis’ team demanded, Mitchell waited days to tack a short “postscript” littered with more falsehoods about DeSantis’ educational policies at the end of her Wednesday show, saying:
In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarizing Gov. DeSantis’ position about teaching slavery in schools. Gov. DeSantis is not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools, but he has opposed the teaching of an African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since.
It would be easy for DeSantis and his team to give up battering publications for their deceitful practices because most corporate media, when confronted about their serial lying, refuse to correct their falsehoods. When members of the media do choose to scrub inaccuracies, they do so quietly so as not to draw attention to their politicking. In fact, more often than not, the press is rewarded for lying instead of facing true accountability.
The “take what you can get” attitude that plagues so many GOP offices, however, is a mistake DeSantis’ office is not keen on making. Rightfully unsatisfied with Mitchell’s unapologetic monologue masquerading as rectification, Griffin once again took to Twitter to expose the media mouthpiece’s scheming.
“This ‘postscript’ from @mitchellreports is a typical non-apology response that doubles down on the original lie,” Griffin replied.
Griffin made it very clear that since NBC failed to uphold the most basic principles of journalism and instead proved its commitment to wrongly maligning Republicans, the network will not get the privilege of interacting with the governor’s office.
Time and time again, history proves that corporate media approach Democrats’ political enemies with hostility and bad faith. The media’s incessant bullying of conservative politicians, voters, and beliefs ends only when their utter lack of credibility is exposed and their power to control narratives is neutralized. DeSantis and his team recognize this, which is why they confidently ignore liars and smear artists. If other Republicans are serious about winning the culture war and getting the country back on track, they will do the same.
The only way conservatives can shed their status as media victims is to cut off the propaganda press once and for all.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.
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