'60 Minutes' reads comments from viewers about disputed DeSantis report
Fox News contributor Ben Domenech reacts to '60 Minutes' standing by its disputed reporting on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state's vaccine rollout.
CBS News’ "60 Minutes" acknowledged criticism on Sunday for last week’s widely condemned segment about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, but it didn’t apologize or retract the report and chose only to read a few negative letters.
"This is something that shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore. So many institutions in the media, including ’60 Minutes,’ sadly, have now adopted an approach that essentially amounts to Democratic propaganda," The Federalist publisher Ben Domenech said Monday on "Fox & Friends."
"DeSantis is a popular, rising politician whose success in dealing with this pandemic is, I think, something that no one can dispute, and ’60 Minutes’ went after him, trying to find some chink in his armor, some way to go after him that would undermine him as a politician," Domenech continued. "They were unable to find that truthfully and instead they engaged in this fallacious editing attempt to essentially silence his entire argument against their case."
The now-infamous "60 Minutes" report suggested DeSantis gave the Publix grocery store chain preferable treatment to offer the coronavirus vaccine based on its donations to his PAC, while also painting the governor as a villain who prioritized at-risk senior citizens over teachers. CBS News has maintained it did nothing wrong, but critics have found multiple issues with the reporting.
Democratic state officials, conservative pundits, Floridians and journalism professors alike have called for CBS News to retract or correct the story, but the long-running newsmagazine instead doubled down.
"In the mail this week, comments on our story about disparities in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine in Palm Beach County, Florida. Viewers focused on an exchange with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference. Some viewers, including a retired newsman, applauded the story," correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said before leading with a glowing letter from someone who enjoyed the report.
"But many more comments condemned our editing and reporting," Alfonsi continued before reading a pair of letters with negative feedback.
"Shameful biased reporting – that is what you are guilty of. You are no longer journalists. But lobbyists and advocates," a letter from Amy Ernest in Houston stated. Another long-time viewer informed Alfonsi he was finished watching "60 Minutes" after the attempted DeSantis takedown.
Media Research Center vice president of research Brent Baker took to Twitter to call Alfonsi out for not correcting her "shoddy hit piece" about DeSantis.
"She didn’t acknowledge doing anything wrong," Baker wrote.
Others criticized the way "60 Minutes" acknowledged the controversial segment: