During a Thursday campaign stop in New Hampshire, a member of the corporate media interrupted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to accuse the governor of avoiding voters despite him interacting with one at the very moment of accusation. “Why not take any questions from voters, governor?” Associated Press reporter Steve Peoples asked DeSantis while the governor was in the middle of taking a photo with a man attending the event.
“Governor, how come you’re not taking questions from voters?” The reporter pressed as DeSantis smiled for a picture with his arm around the man.
“Are you blind?” DeSantis responded. “People are coming up to me, talking to me [about] whatever they want to talk to me about,” he said, effectively thwarting Peoples’ plan to gin up a “DeSantis is avoiding voters” narrative.
Since then, Twitter users have posted video footage of DeSantis answering questions from voters, further disproving Peoples’ allegation.
This isn’t the first time Peoples has tried contriving a fake story about DeSantis. Last month, he claimed DeSantis “made little effort to connect with voters one-on-one at a picnic fundraiser” in Iowa. Those in attendance at the picnic were quick to post footage of the governor taking pictures and answering questions at the event, proving Peoples’ claim demonstrably false, which resulted in the addition of an update being posted to an Associated Press article Peoples helped write about the campaign stop.
Since the media couldn’t blast DeSantis for not talking to voters because he was, in fact, talking to voters on Thursday, the press instead ran with a different storyline. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lashed out at a reporter,” reported NBC News. “DeSantis Loses It On Reporter,” reads a Mediaite headline.
Has the press learned nothing from the 2016 presidential election? Complaining that DeSantis was rude to a member of the propaganda press won’t garner the media sympathy, nor will it hurt DeSantis. If anything, DeSantis’ hostility toward the corporate media, particularly when they’re actively trying to purvey disinformation with bad-faith questions, will only serve to help his presidential bid.
There’s a reason former President Donald Trump agreed to the CNN town hall with Kaitlan Collins. The voters love watching the former president dunk on the media. His uncanny ability to keep the media “in check” by doing things like labeling the press “fake news” or canceling the White House Correspondents’ dinner is a major reason he’s so widely supported among conservatives.
Americans are well aware that the corporate press is nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. Last month, a Harvard/Harris poll found the majority of Americans do not believe Trump colluded with Russia, nor do they believe Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. What Americans do believe, though, is that President Joe Biden is involved in Hunter’s “illegal influence peddling scheme,” and they aren’t surprised to learn the FBI interfered in the 2016 election.
The poll also revealed the American people know the media peddles disinformation. Americans don’t feel sorry for corrupt media elites like Peoples, who think they own our minds, but they love when Republican candidates call the press out on their lies.
If DeSantis is looking for a winning strategy, this is it.
