A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis interacts with the Jacksonville press corps almost as much as he sees Sean Hannity and he uses both as sounding boards for similar messages.
Friday morning’s press conference offered DeSantis yet another opportunity to rage against the media for a “drive-by smear” of Duval County made weeks ago.
After Duval County opened beaches for limited purposes, DeSantis has gone out of his way to defend Duval against the slings and arrows of a press corps he has seen as sensationalistic throughout the coronacrisis, with Friday being the latest.
As if he were on a FOX News primetime program, the Governor railed against “the Acela Corridor media” from up north, denigrating its “doom and gloom” scenarios for Duval County.
“All those people were wrong,” DeSantis said, not remotely for the first time. “They smeared Florida unjustifiably and now they want us to pretend we don’t remember what they did.”
“Follow facts over narrative,” DeSantis said, presumably to the local TV reporters. “You’ll be better off.”
The Governor noted that even after beaches were opened, local hospitalizations related to coronavirus were down 30%, ventilator usage down 47%, and ICU usage down 60%.
DeSantis had lauded the local press before for offering counterpoint to national stories on the beach reopening, both in person and to media outside of Duval.
“Local media in Northeast Florida did a great job,” DeSantis said earlier this week, before suggesting that they then said “the chance of you getting it [at the beach] is lower than at Costco.”
Those comments came during a Monday evening press conference in Tallahassee, a forum he used to shame out-of-state media.
DeSantis called on the national media to convey “apologies” to the city of Jacksonville, “attention: Mayor Curry,” as well as to the Mayor of the beaches.
“I won’t hold my breath on that happening,” he quipped.
Thus far, those apologies have not been extended.
The Governor began a vociferous defense of Duval shortly after the #FloridaMorons hashtag trended on Twitter after the beach openings.
“For those who would say you’re morons,” DeSantis said last month, “I’d take you any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
He has both on Twitter and interviews bemoaned a media “spasm” about the beach openings, employing Donald Trump-style tactics to go over the heads of the press and directly talk to his base.
Like Trump, though, he needs the platform of the media to pull that off.
7 comments
Sam
May 8, 2020 at 2:08 pm
He had better be ready to pivot because this type of douchebaggery will go out of style when trump is gone.
NO MORE REPUBLICANS !!!
May 8, 2020 at 2:16 pm
The best bet for normal, thinking people in Florida is to just pick up and get the hell outta here! Republican rule over the past 22 years has been totally repressive and regressive relative to the needs and best interests of all of us working stiffs – and the mini-me Trump in Tallahassee is there through 2022 and screw-job Sen. Shouldabenafelon Scott is gonna be peddling his fatcat special interest agenda through 2024. 40th-ranked public school system – lowest-paid teachers – highest-cost auto/home/wind/flood/medical insurance – worst unemployment compensation system in the U.S. – lotsa lousy-paying jobs – among the worst Medicaid systems in the U.S. – rapidly-rising cost-of-living – blah, blah, blah.
Florida is no place for working people! It’s only for well-to-do retirees and the illegal immigrants who cut their grass, tend their pools, clean their houses, pick their fruit and produce, and otherwise do the fatcats’ dirty work.
Ron
May 8, 2020 at 5:50 pm
So leave. Who’s stopping you. Go to NY or NJ. Wear your mask.
Tammy
May 9, 2020 at 8:52 am
Absolutely, Ron. I wish these folks would leave too. They want to bring down the state to NY/style politics. Ironic since there is a mass exodus from those states working to come to FL to retire.
What a weird screen name too. This person sounds VERY angry and disturbed. Wish we had like buttons.
Tammy
May 9, 2020 at 8:43 am
You media folk are a piece of work, always playing victim. You have been dancing at the thought of using this virus to hurt DeSantis for weeks. Everything you portended and bashed him for turned out to be wrong (while you glorified everything NY did and their irresponsible approach has caused hundreds of thousand of unnecessary cases and deaths)
You politicized this and you were wrong. WAY wrong.
So instead of acting as if DeSantis is being small and petty, maybe you media folks should offer up a mea culpa and an apology.
You won’t though. And if we see spikes, you’ll dance once more on the heads of the suffering.
martin
May 10, 2020 at 11:07 am
this covid 19 will be recorded in history as the greatest media induced mass hysteria event ever.
The models released by the CDC are completely incorrect. What we know, and knew almost 2 months ago; the death rate is .03% of total infected. 80% of those deaths occur in elderly over the age of 82. Due to pre-existing conditions!
State governors–can we say coumo, ordered sick senior citizens released from hospitals back to nursing homes and other elder care facilities.
Basic microbiology and virology say that the healthy should not be isolated. Only the infected need to isolated. We also know that 70% of the population is immune to this virus, and will suffer no problems, or only mild symptoms. Those who are obese, have heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, and auto-immune disease, are those who needed better protection.
Many of our elected officials are clueless morons. They have ruined the economy, created record unemployment, and caused untold hardship upon the citizens. Why? Because they have listed to the media message that “the sky is falling”.
The media refuses to report the truth, yet yell we must follow the “science”. The CDC is not following the science. The CDC is another over-bloated government agency.
Allen
May 10, 2020 at 3:53 pm
I think the Governor is doing a great job, and thank him for his efforts during this. Me and my family are so fortunate not to live in a place like Michigan or New York. Keep up the great work Governor 🙂
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