I wrote previously about how the so-called “liberal” Tampa Bay Times and other Florida “journalists” refuse to relentlessly investigate and expose the fascist corruption and agenda of Governor Ron DeSantis.
Worse yet, they refuse to use his actual name: DeSatan.
According to reporting on the Empire Files, Ron the Con is likely a war criminal who “allegedly” assisted torture of wrongly-detained Guantanamo prisoners, and provided cover for American war criminals who massacred civilians in Fallujah, Iraq.
My earlier article noted when I repeatedly contacted Tampa Bay Times political reporters, asking them to dig deep into DeSatan’s military career, they refused to communicate, except for one who anonymously wrote back and said it was too hard, too dangerous to look into DeSantis.
And besides, the “reporter” said, a lot of the newspaper’s readers and advertisers love DeSantis, and we wouldn’t want to offend them, would we?
Florida and national mainstream media continues to mostly ignore the fascistic, politically motivated performative stunts DeSantis rolls out every week.
And when they do cover him, it’s mostly favorable or neutral.
Indeed, the Tampa Bay Times (TBT) has resorted to only publishing the whole truth about DeSantis by hiding behind its letters column.
Letters and “opinion pieces” from citizens busting DeSatan are published frequently.
These offerings are a good starting point for what TBT journalists should be looking into. Instead, TBT hides behind citizen inputs, refusing to allow its journalists to do much more than shill for DeSantis or write so-called “balanced” articles that fail to interview experts who would forcefully expose the governor’s fascist agenda.
TBT is owned by a shadowy entity called the Poynter Institute which runs a so-called journalistic accuracy service called PolitiFact.
It should be called PolitiSpin. It recently declared as “factual” DeSantis’ claims that his administration has been effective at stopping red tide, a virulent organism that kills fish and causes harm to humans.
Red tide is a natural organism that has unnaturally become a constant plague in Florida due to population growth, pollution, warming oceans, lack of rainfall, altered tidal flow and winds.
It’s worse and worse every year. DeSantis threw a little money at red tide research, but did nothing to actually stop the human-impact causes of red tide.
And yet, PolitiFact claimed that the governor’s pledge to stop red tide was a promise he kept.
The same charade can be seen in how TBT covered DeSatan’s politically-motivated firing of Hillsborough County state prosecutor Andrew Warren, which was a kick in the teeth to the voters who elected Warren.
DeSantis fired Warren for political purposes and violated both the state and federal constitution in doing so, according to a federal judge.
The firing came after Warren noted DeSantis is pushing gestation slavery abortion bans. Warren said he would use prosecutorial discretion when it came to prosecuting women and others for affirming body autonomy.
So DeSatan fired him and installed a right-wing toady in his place.
TBT reported the federal judge’s ruling by hiding behind dueling “legal experts,” laden with false equivalencies, whataboutisms, and generalized mealy-mouthed pro-DeSantis propaganda.
They didn’t have the guts to report the most important point, which is that DeSantis acts like a tinpot dictator who removea elected officials, defying the will of the voters, to suit his personal political agenda.
DeSantis engaged in yet another of his many thought control stunts by banning the College Board’s new Advanced Placement class on African American history from being taught in the state.
TBT could have produced a great article on this, including the fact that when DeSatan was a young college graduate, he taught history at an elite prep school where he partied with young female students and argued that Confederate slavery was wonderful for slaves and slaveowners.
TBT also refused to banner the full, negative implications of DeSantis kicking a million struggling Floridians off Medicaid because he opposes Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
Journalism is not a career for the cowardly--if you want to be a real journalist. DeSantis knows TBT political journalists and many others are cowards, and has made sure to give them plenty of reason to be afraid.
DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw, for example, was temporarily suspended from Twitter because of what the Associated Press accurately described as her “direct effort to activate an online mob to attack a journalist.”
Pushaw was mad at the journalist for writing an article showing DeSantis and his wealthiest donors are in a corrupt circular arrangement that includes use of government money and reciprocal political actions to benefit DeSantis donors and the governor.
DeSatan recently proposed legislation making it easier to sue journalists for telling the truth.
I must emphasize, media failure is not only a problem at the Tampa Bay Times.
Most mainstream media in this country fails to do authentic journalism on a regular basis anymore, and is too-often a mouthpiece for the worst fascists and other miscreants.
Remember how the media gave glowing coverage to Traitor Trump and vicious coverage of Hilary Clinton during their presidential campaigns, which greatly contributed to Trump’s victory in 2016?
CBS president Les Moonves gave away the game when he said Trump is not good for America, but he’s “damn good for CBS,” enhancing ad revenues and the “political circus” that drives them.
Well, we could be seeing the same ominous thing happen with media fluffing of DeSatan’s presidential ambitions.
Fortunately, there are still real journalists working, including those here at Daily Kos, Pro Publica, Media Matters, on the Meidas Touch and Majority Report YouTube channels and elsewhere.
You can do your part by constantly telling your local media to do their job and stop providing cover for the fascist GOP, especially if you live in Florida.