Ken Burns Gets Both Florida and History Wrong

Ken was about as calmly hyperbolic as you can get. He discussed Ron DeSantis regarding what Burns described as limiting the teaching of history and compared him to the Soviets and Nazis. Then he addressed Tucker Carlson with the January 6 tapes and derided him for the revelations. 

Let’s recap; it is wrong to withhold facts in schools, but completely irresponsible for Tucker to reveal facts about January 6. Uh…huh.

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Then Burns completely invalidates himself as a historian as he listed off a number of the Founders, including John Adams, describing how opposed they would be.

• “(They) are rolling over in their graves if they think that this person [DeSantis] is carrying the mantle of what it is to be an American.”

I don’t know that Ron DeSantis has done anything approaching arresting and jailing journalists and editors – something John Adams did with aplomb, using The Sedition Act to go after enemy newspapers.

Filmmaker @KenBurns: "All of these bills that DeSantis and others are doing limit our ability to understand ... It feels like a Soviet system or, you know, the way the Nazis would build a Potemkin village. Tucker Carlson is doing the same thing with the footage from 1/6." pic.twitter.com/ntLySi1P7F

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 7, 2023

Gilded Reframe – CBS NEWS

• The sheer amount of outlets that have needed to apologize and make corrections over Florida’s education laws is mounting.

Yet another news outlet steamrolled ahead with false, farcical claims of books being banned in Florida. This time it was "CBS Saturday Morning" that had to backtrack from its position. One might think that at some point, a dawning might come over the industry that their preconceived talking points are flawed, but this is apparently a skill beyond the reach of modern journalists.

CBS News issues correction after claiming children's book 'might be banned statewide' in Florida https://t.co/yhqCsv6vC7

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 7, 2023

Pre-Written Field Reports – LOS ANGELES TIMES

• And speaking of news outlets butchering Florida stories...

At the LA Times, they were apparently deeply impressed with the last episode of John Oliver’s show, where he tore into Ron DeSantis in a rather sophomoric fashion. And the host seemed particularly impressed with Donald Trump’s latest nickname for the governor, “Meatball Ron.” Okay…then. The article was not even an article so much as it was simply a transcript of Oliver’s monologue. Top-flight journalism, that. 

Making this ridiculousness even more childish was the writer making the claim that the DeSantis camp did not respond to a question, something that DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin rather sharply contested. It is rather apparent that writer Christi Carras filed her piece ahead of time, as Griffin shows here.

"DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond Monday to the Los Angeles Times’ request for comment."

Yes, I did. Within an hour. Why wasn't my comment included in the article? @latimes @christicarras https://t.co/RO5b1ahgz3 pic.twitter.com/WI8bpCf3bu

— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 7, 2023

The piece was later edited to include Griffin’s quote, with no attribution made regarding the change.

Prose & Contradiction – MEDIAITE

• Maybe if you write a dozen pieces, that will really show the triviality of all of this!

The Tucker Carlson reveal of what he found in the trove of videos from the January 6 Capitol riot began last night, and the press predictably is spinning out of control. Of all of the insistence that Tucker has not exposed anything damning (just take their word for it, no need to look into things for yourself!),, perhaps the best example comes from Mediaite.

In order to sell the concept that Tucker’s revelations were a nothing burger, the site had no fewer than eight or nine pieces on the tapes coming out.

The gang at @Mediaite want you to know how much of a non-story is the Tucker Carlson expose of the January 6 tapes.
They are on their 9th column, and counting, explaining how inconsequential this all has been. pic.twitter.com/H3JqlE3qRR

— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) March 7, 2023

Matching Media Memorandum – NBC NEWS

• But…but…it’s worse when they do the same thing!

On Sunday’s "Meet The Press," Chuck Todd was clearly eager to get in on the practice seen across the media spectrum of slamming Fox News over the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, buying in with the claim that numerous hosts were caught lying on the air. (For an explanation of how this is inaccurate, I covered that at RedState.) 

Clearly, Chuck was waiting for an opportunity, so he jumped in with his charge while discussing a completely different topic. But after asking the New Hampshire governor how he views the supposedly discredited Fox, Sununu managed to tie Chuckles in a knot.

• "Oh, well, I don’t think it’s just Fox. I mean, I’ll put them in there, but all of media, all of television media, and everyone has to own a little bit of the lack of trust, the lack of accountability. Look, I’m not defending anybody because I think you’re all in the same basket, I really do. But I could go to CNN when they’re going to ignore the Hunter Biden laptop story, we could talk about the virus truly coming out of the lab in Wuhan, we could talk about a lot of different things. If you’re not owning that you misrepresented the story, whether it was intentional or not, everybody does it, and that’s the problem. America is losing faith in media, and you guys have a huge opportunity to regain that."

NH Gov @ChrisSununu calls out the dishonest leftist media after Todd smears Fox News: “I think you’re all in the same basket, I really do, but I could go to CNN when they’ll ignore the Hunter Biden laptop story. We can talk about the virus truly coming out of the lab in Wuhan...” pic.twitter.com/VaYQI0Dnqr

— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) March 5, 2023

Pathological Media Amnesia – WASHINGTON POST

• It has failed every time so far, so this time, it is bound to work.

In a completely unbiased, neutral, non-partisan fashion, columnist Kevin Blackstone has the perfect idea to get Governor Ron DeSantis in line. Major League Baseball should step up and take action against the state.

• "If baseball is still concerned with as much, its 15 franchises that started spring training last month in Florida should consider making the annual exercise an all-Cactus League affair as long as DeSantis commands an attack on diversity. It has been the hallmark of his governorship, which many believe is a prologue to a presidential bid."

What makes Blackstone’s proposal even more precious is that he not only has to forget/ignore that just last year, Disney was pulled into state politics, but the company is still paying the price in the form of having in-state rights stripped and its stock devalued by about -50%.

But this also has to overlook the complete fiasco that MLB encountered the last time it tried to exert influence when it pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta over the voting reform laws the state passed.

Perspective: As the governor fights diversity and inclusion in Florida, Major League Baseball should take a stand, Kevin B. Blackistone writes. https://t.co/feN1m7fsBm

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 7, 2023