Earlier this week, NBC's Andrea Mitchell – last heard from scolding one of her own colleagues for using the term "pro-life" – used the opportunity of a kid gloves interview with Vice President Kamala Harris to launch factually false, racial, partisan attacks against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In a blatantly incorrect editorial remark, Mitchell "asked" Harris, "What does Gov. Ron DeSantis not know about black history and the black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?" This effectively translates into, "Please criticize a bad person we both dislike, preferably in racial terms." It's rooted in absolute nonsense, of course. As we've noted previously in our coverage of the (still ongoing) AP African American Studies curriculum controversy, black history, including slavery and its aftermath is required material in the state of Florida. As it should be.
DeSantis' objection to the College Board's proposed AP course was based on left-wing ideology stuffed into one out of four units laid out in the syllabus. Mitchell, supposedly one of the more serious people at MSNBC, either didn't bother to know the relevant facts before launching her loaded broadside or chose to deliberately lie about them, in order to shiv one of her political party's most loathed opponents. Yesterday, DeSantis' office put the entirety of NBC on notice, telling them collectively that no requests for interviews or comment would be granted unless and until Mitchell issued an on-air correction:
To all of the bookers and producers reaching out to our office from @NBCNews and @MSNBC for @GovRonDeSantis to join your shows, this will be the standard response from our office until @mitchellreports apologizes and your track record improves. pic.twitter.com/8kQcLLEVzW
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 22, 2023
Mitchell attempted a quasi-mea culpa on Wednesday:
“In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarizing Governor DeSantis’ position about teaching slavery in schools. Governor DeSantis is not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools, but he has opposed the teaching of an African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since.”
While less aggressively dishonest, this is still bad and unacceptable. It's not just that DeSantis is "not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools;" such teaching is mandated in Florida schools. He has opposed the introduction of a new elective AP class, based on one of its four units, which delves into ideological leftism, including "intersectionality," neo-Marxist thought, reparations, and black queer studies. Whatever you think of these topics, excluding them from coursework taught to teenagers does not make it "all but impossible" for students to understand the "context" of slavery. What Mitchell is doing in this bogus "correction" is walking back the most egregious lie she told while sustaining the broader ideological attack against DeSantis, outsourcing her criticisms to "historians and teachers." The historians and teachers who agree with her, of course. This is a common tactic employed by journalists who wish to project their biases into "reporting," laundered through alleged "experts" who share their biases. This ploy was showcased very recently, in fact, by...NBC News:
So many media outlets have this strategy for reporting on Asian and Hispanic communities — they talk to progressive activists and treat their comments as being representative of the whole community. https://t.co/ROolsbffId
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 20, 2023
Team DeSantis is, quite understandably, rejecting Mitchell's faux correction:
Griffin told Fox News Digital that he was not impressed. "I saw her ‘post script’ and it's a typical non-apology response that doubles down on her lie," he said. DeSantis' deputy press secretary Jeremy Redfern tweeted, "Once again, @mitchellreports is ‘imprecise’ in her description because she relies on unnamed ‘historians and teachers.’ Florida statute requires the teaching of slavery and its aftermath. We just know that ‘queer studies’ has nothing to do with Jim Crow." Redfern added in a later tweet, "Saying one was ‘imprecise,’ when what they said was a blatant lie, is not an apology. @MSNBC /@NBCNews should not be viewed as an objective media organization. Stop letting the corporate media be the gatekeepers of truth." One Twitter user replied to the thread, suggesting a "Complete embargo on NBC after this." Redfern replied, "Yep."
"People are now faced with the reality that in places like Florida, books that discuss Black history or even mention Black people are now illegal."
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 22, 2023
Pro tip for writers: Never start a column with an outright lie. https://t.co/9Hm6w4kRHQ
One wonders if the editors who approved this misinformation are ignorant of the lies, or actively support the lies. I'll leave you with The Dispatch fact-checking a progressive activist (who has a Washington Post column) on this subject matter. The article and the entire accompanying thread are worth your time:
🧵 Is FL Gov. Ron DeSantis guilty of “mounting a ‘full-blown white supremacist’ attack on ‘fact-based history,’ as WaPo’s @JRubinBlogger claims? Not so fast.@rickhess99 takes a close look for @thedispatch.https://t.co/63e7VAojzu
— The Dispatch (@thedispatch) February 22, 2023
The fact-check includes a flaying of the historically wrong 1619 Project, which continues to get things wrong.