Media forced to cut feed on DeSantis' 'book ban hoax' stream
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. joined 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss why the media had to cut their feeds and DeSantis' broader fight to empower parental rights in the classroom.
Florida Democrats chairwoman Nikki Fried appeared to inadvertently agree with Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., in a tweet attempting to crticize him on Friday.
Earlier in the week, DeSantis hosted a presentation on debunking the media narrative surrounding his recent efforts to remove explicit and political books from Florida school libraries. To further address his concerns, he displayed a video segment that featured several images of graphic content from books that have been found in schools.
Fried, however, shared the video, claiming that DeSantis was freely displaying pornography from his public Twitter account.
"Ron posting butt plug porn to own the libs," Fried tweeted.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Twitter users quickly responded to Fried's tweet for proving DeSantis’ efforts to remove them from schools correct.
"Oh, so elementary schoolers shouldn't be exposed to this sort of thing? Cause, if so, boy, lady, I've got some news for you on which side is okay with that," Newsbusters managing editor Curtis Houck joked.
Journalist Ian Miles Cheong agreed, "Florida Democrat chair Nikki Fried admits that graphic illustrations being shown to children are in fact pornographic in nature. And yet, the Democrats are trying very hard to force it onto children. Why is this?"
"If you want that taught in schools, what's wrong with posting it online?" Substack writer Jim Treacher asked.
"I mean…yes?" The Spectator contributing editor Stephen Miller tweeted.
National Review contributor Pradheep Shankar declared, "This is one of the greatest self owns in Twitter history. Basically proving DeSantis was right...and these Democrats were all wrong. If they disagree...feel free to post these pictures on their kids' facebook feeds."
"Self owns as art," Mediaite writer Caleb Howe wrote.
Fried's tweet also contained "added context" reading, "this illustration is from a video played by Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference highlighting some of the ‘pornographic’ books — now listed for removal — found in Florida public schools."
Former Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried was elected as chair of the Florida Democratic Party on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, beating former State Sen. Annette Taddeo, in Orlando, Florida. (Steven Lemongello/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Fried later replied to her tweet, agreeing that "of course" the books don’t belong in schools but blaming DeSantis for allowing them to be there.
"Of course this book doesn’t belong in school — but which Republican Education Commissioner or Governor allowed it to be there? Time to pull the plug on your plan to remove history books and stop tickling your base, @GovRonDeSantis," Fried wrote.
"And which political party is demanding to keep all these pornographic books in schools? Why?" DeSantis Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw tweeted in response.
Deputy press secretary Jeremy Redfern joked, "This ratio doesn’t belong in school."
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Fried previously ran as a Democratic candidate in the primaries for the 2022 Florida gubernatorial race. She lost her bid to Charlie Crist who later lost to DeSantis by nearly 20 points.
During DeSantis' presentation, it was later reported that some local news affiliates cut the live feed once the images were shown due to "sensitive" or "explicit" content. This was confirmed by WFLA investigative journalist Masha Saeidi.
In addition, Twitter accounts sharing the video have been marked for containing "potentially sensitive content."
During the presentation, DeSantis called out the mainstream media for pushing a "false" narrative that he has been openly banning books rather than removing inappropriate content for children.
Photo full library shelves after Governor DeSantis signed into law re-evaluating the books allowed in Florida Schools. (Duval County Public Schools)
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"So a lot of that what’s been going on is an attempt to create a political narrative," DeSantis said. "And it’s a false political narrative. And that’s bad enough as it is, I guess, but for me, the important thing is that’s a false narrative in service of using our schools for indoctrination rather than education."