Kurtz: Nearly everything in '60 Minutes' piece was 'designed' to paint DeSantis as a 'bad guy'
Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz joins 'America Reports' to discuss the widely criticized CBS '60 Minutes' segment.
A widely criticized "60 Minutes" report focusing on Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is the latest example of a mainstream media attack on the potential 2024 White House hopeful.
Despite the Sunshine State's robust economy and a strong response to the coronavirus pandemic (Florida currently has the the 27th-most coronavirus deaths per capita despite being the third-most populous state in the Union), DeSantis has come under fire in the press for everything from partnering with the Publix grocery store chain on vaccinations, to getting shots to Holocaust survivors, to accusations of cooking the books, to keeping the state largely open during the pandemic, to running afoul of a Florida data scientist who was later arrested for hacking a state computer system.
"This is partisan corporate media and I think at this point these people ... they’re basically ambulance chasers with a microphone," DeSantis said on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday. "They are not trustworthy. They lie. We know they’re lying, they know that we know that they’re lying, and yet they lie and they lie and they lie."
DeSantis, a strong ally of former President Donald Trump, is a potential contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In the "60 Minutes" segment, which aired Sunday, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi alleged DeSantis gave Publix lucrative rights to vaccine distribution in response to a $100,000 donation to his PAC. However, Publix and DeSantis vigorously disputed the piece's recycled narrative, and critics noted Publix was a natural fit for vaccine partnership given its more than 800 locations in the state.
"That's a fake narrative," DeSantis told CBS News. "I met with the county mayor, I met with the administrator, I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County and I said, 'Here's some of the options: We can do more drive-thru sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix.' And they said, 'We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents."
Even Florida Democrats leapt to the governor's defense after the piece aired, with Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner and State Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz speaking out against the story. CBS News has stood by the piece in statements to Fox News.
The Drudge Report, a former conservative media aggregator that has taken a sharp left turn, has gone after DeSantis, using both the "60 Minutes" piece and a widely panned Yahoo News story last week as its banner.
The Yahoo story, written last week by a reporter who once compared Ted Cruz supporters to Nazis, suggested Florida was dramatically undercounting its coronavirus death toll. The story stemmed from a research study showing that Florida's "excess deaths" in 2020 didn't line up with its reported coronavirus fatalities, but multiple experts quoted in the story, including one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said nothing about Florida's numbers raised any red flags.
Yale epidemiologist Daniel Weinberger said his analysis indicated the Florida "gap" between COVID-19 and excess deaths was about average, according to the story.
Moosa Tatar, the lead author of the study leading the Yahoo piece, told Fox News "many of these [excess] deaths are likely because of COVID-19, but we need further research to determine specific reasons for this."
An NBC News story in February was roasted by one GOP operative as an "absurd botched hit piece" after criticizing DeSantis' coronavirus vaccination plan for prioritizing senior citizens, such as Holocaust survivors and veterans, because they might be more likely to vote Republican.
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"When Holocaust survivors and Cuban survivors of the Bay of Pigs debacle — revered members of two other key Florida voting blocs — got their first shots, DeSantis made sure he was there for the news conferences," reporter Corky Siemaszko wrote.
DeSantis consistently came under fire last year for keeping the state's economy open and shaking off expert calls for extended lockdowns. The narrative that Florida had a dismal response is so ensconced, one host on "The View" referred to him as "Death-Santis" as she lamented the attention being paid to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's myriad scandals.
"We're not talking at all about Governor Death-santis in Florida, we're not talking about Governor Abbot in Texas, we're not talking about the South Dakota governor, we're not talking about any of those governors in states that- I think it's alleged in Florida that DeSantis has hidden [the] number of the deaths there- we're not talking about those issues, but we're only focused- we're hyper-focused at this point on Governor Cuomo," host Sunny Hostin said March 15.
Media outlets have also hyped Rebekah Jones, a former Florida data scientist who was fired for insubordination and arrested on charges she hacked into the state's health department computer system. She repeatedly alleged, without evidence, that DeSantis ordered her to manipulate COVID-19 data to help in his plans to fully open the state.
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She embarked on a media tour last year that included stops at CNN, CBS, and NPR, while a Cosmopolitan puff piece called her a "pandemic cult hero" and "Floridian Fauci," referring to White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
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Jones surrendered to the Leon County detention facility in January after law enforcement officials issued a warrant for her arrest. She was charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) said. She also has an arrest record for cyber-stalking, criminal mischief, and trespassing.
DeSantis also came under fire for Florida's handling of the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, a feared "super-spreader" event that did not come to fruition.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.