Once again, Gov. Ron DeSantis prevails in a media takedown. This time, the Republican governor aimed the lies MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell told about the Florida school curriculum.
The story began when Mitchell threw a softball question to Vice President Kamala Harris. Last Friday, 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?”
The whole question was a lie. DeSantis does not oppose the teaching of slavery and the aftermath; in fact, it is clearly listed as required teaching on the Florida Dept. of Education’s website.
DeSantis had his office announce that they would be declining requests for interviews with DeSantis from NBC News affiliates.
“There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor,” DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said in an email to the network. He then posted the letter on Twitter.
Griffin went further saying that NBC and its affiliates must display a consistent track record of more truthful reporting before the governor agrees to future appearances. DeSantis already has a track record of a bad relationship with the liberal media.
Mitchell followed that with a “postscript” saying she had been “imprecise” in her phrasing of the question even though nothing she said was true.
DeSantis wasn’t done. He said, “You have the reporter saying that ‘Governor DeSantis does not want students to learn about slavery and its aftermath.’ Well if you actually looked at what our standards are, not only is it not prohibited to teach that, it’s required to teach that.”
“They are doing that to try to create a narrative, they’re not doing that because Florida has a law. They’re doing it because they know there is enough people in corporate media who will just take that, and run with that… if it is explicit and pornographic, parents have the right to object.”
“They are lying to you!” he continued. “We are required to teach all aspects of black history, not queer theory…They are lying to you!”
The governor once again made it clear that he will not sit back and take the media’s lies.
Just last year, Gov. DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida Schools. It focused on lessons from historical topics taught in ways that would make someone feel personally responsible for past wrongs based on their own race, sex, or national origin.
Those on the Left have been critical of this law saying that it unfairly limits the teaching of subjects such as the Civil War and the Jim Crow narrative.
Gov. DeSantis enraged the Left again garnering outrage from Democrats and other activists when his administration rejected the new Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course launched by the College Board earlier this year. He said that the course lacked “educational value.”
DeSantis and his administration simply objected to topics that included Black queer studies, intersectionality, the reparations movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought, and the Black struggle in the 21st century.
After this criticism and the support DeSantis had in Florida, the College Board later released changes to the AP course that aligned with many of DeSantis’s criticisms.
They claimed that the changes were not due to the governor’s influence.
The governor has not yet made it clear if his state will accept the course now that it is amended.
DeSantis Swears Off All NBC Interviews Until Andrea Mitchell Issues A Correction https://t.co/4YmZW5sJs4
— Ben Owen🇺🇸 (@hrkbenowen) February 23, 2023
