South Florida Paper Ridicules Itself With Another Attempted Slam on Ron DeSantis – Opinion

Even worse, the editorial board can get facts wrong while writing a hit story.

It is tempting to say that media outlets have embarrassed themselves, but as I’ve been watching for some time, this emotion escapes members of the press. It feels more true to call these misfires saddening and pathetic. This latest comes from South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The paper attempts to expand the unsuccessful Nazi narrative of last week, and takes on many rakes along the way.

Instead of chalking this up to a renegade reporter resorting to bias, this misbegotten slam arrives courtesy of the paper’s Editorial Board, making the resulting fiasco all the worse. Aligning themselves with the other Florida papers with an open animosity for the governor, the piece begins with a direct attack on the governor’s mouthpiece, his Press Secretary, Christina Pushaw. This isn’t me white-knighting. Ms. Pushaw is an expert at handling the media and protecting herself. They are disapproving of it.

Instead, this is me focusing on the newspaper, as they resort to petri-dish shallow “gotcha” journalism to make an extremely diluted point. The Board sets things up as if we are five years old – or they just stumbled upon these details for themselves.

Christina Pushaw is a combative, divisive and highly partisan political operative whose keyboard rants carry great weight for one reason: She’s the governor’s press secretary. When she tweets and retweets, likes and dislikes, she’s speaking on behalf of Ron DeSantis, the governor of the third-largest state and a likely 2024 presidential candidate.

The way that a press secretary can be loyal and defensive of her boss, while still receiving a salary from the government is something they are surprised by. They should type in the letters J-E-N P-S-A-K-I, and prepare themselves for the shock they’ll receive once they press ENTER.

The board is critical of the bizarre display in Orlando that took place a little more than a week ago. Around eight protestors in Nazi cosplay protested. Images were shared in a dramatic fashion by the media and on social media, as though the state had been overrun by Storm Troopers, preventing access to the parks. These dolts were not ignored by the media, who instead went on to indulge in pearl-clutching melodramatics. Then they really displayed bias and ignorance by repeating the canard of “the former president’s remark about ‘fine people’ among the Unite the Right thugs at Charlottesville four years ago.” This is an editorial board, repeating that disproven lie. Amazing.

There were then a number of hysterical postsNikki Fried is the presumed opponent of DeSantis during the forthcoming election. (Calling her a “challenger” is laughably inaccurate.) Fried’s main point was that Ron DeSantis had remained silent about the Nazi gathering, as if this was some kind of proof of him being complicit. “Condemn it, and get this hate off our streets.” You now understand that this is the same Nikki Fried Who spent monthsDeSantis complained that they were clamping down on the right to protest. She is now demanding the governor block any protest. She’s seen both sides and has been wrong twice.

The press then followed Fried’s histrionics like a cat chasing a laser pointer, with the Sun-Sentinel joining in with the ridiculous assertion that because DeSantis did not rush to a microphone and give more attention to a small crowd of idiots, that proved…something. 

Her boss wouldn’t say anything about the repugnant outburst of racism in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. When he finally did, it was to wallow in pretentious self-pity, complaining that Democrats were “trying to smear me as if I had something to do with that.” No one suggested anything of the sort. DeSantis’ silence was the issue.

This attempt is futile to link DeSantis and apathetically displayed. Protestors did nothing other than garner attention from the media. Then, in the rush to cast the blame in some manner on DeSantis, they had to bypass a reality – the governor has signed legislation to battle antisemitism. Nikki Fried knows this well. She was watching DeSantis sign one of these bills.

One other thing has been overlooked. There is another matter that has been overlooked: the Sun-Sentinel board Never managed to include the following quoteDeSantis, Governor 

Ron Desantis officially recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Day, ordering that all flags be flown at 50% on Thursday in honor of the 6 million Jews and the 5 million others who were killed during the Nazi genocide. The governor encouraged Floridians to “reflect on the tragedy of the Holocaust” and to “confront antisemitism where it rears its ugly head.”

DeSantis was not trying to save face in order to please his critics. He spoke those words just two daysThat weekend was before the insipid protest. Somehow, these words, fully available to the press, were not considered as important as “failing” to give exaggerated attention to “over a dozen”Nazis get nervy in Orlando. Words on record don’t have the same weight as those not recorded in a time frame that was not declared. 

Speaking of spoken words, Nikki Fried somehow avoids being the subject of this same ridicule. True, DeSantis was compared to Hitler by the Sun-Sentinel. DeSantis, however, is often criticized more for the things he didn’t say in regard to an incident that occurred quickly enough. The local newspaper resorts to cheap methods of getting political hits. Nikki Fried may be able to act, but DeSantis cannot. DeSantis has a worse reputation for failing to respond quickly enough.