MSNBC has covered itself in glory once again, and surprisingly, it didn’t involve Joy Reid or Mehdi Hasan this time. Instead, one of the longest-tenured (and most biased) reporters in the news game stepped to the fore.
As RedState previously reported, Andrea Mitchell told a big lie about Ron DeSantis during a recent interview with Kamala Harris. In an attempt to toss a softball to the vice president (because they are political allies), Mitchell claimed that DeSantis “says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren.”
I’m trying so hard not to turn this article into a critique of Harris after watching that video. How is she so bad at this? Every part of her presentation is just so contrived and fake, from the tortured pace of her speaking to the expressions on her face. But I digress, the story here is Mitchell, who spent days refusing to correct the blatant lie she told.
To be clear, DeSantis has never suggested that slavery not be taught in Florida schools, and there is no law or order at any level of the state’s government that carries out such a farcical decree. The lack of journalistic ethics didn’t go unnoticed, though. When various NBC news bookers came calling for DeSantis to appear on their shows, his team shut them down.
One of my pet peeves in politics has been the longstanding tendency of Republican politicians to play into the hands of a clearly hostile media. Just days prior to this writing, Nikki Haley sat down with the TODAY Show and it went about as well as you’d expect. Donald Trump has notoriously and continuously given interviews to reporters like Maggie Haberman and Bob Woodward, knowing full well their goal is to destroy him.
I’m always left asking why? What have these press outlets done to deserve being given the time of day by Republicans? The answer is nothing, and the proper response is to tell them to kick rocks. Stop talking to Chuck Todd and stop appearing on CNN.
Still, Mitchell’s bosses must have got the message because she offered an “apology” for her slanderous commentary.
“In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarizing Gov. DeSantis’ position about teaching slavery in schools,” she said. “Gov. 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.”
Thankfully, DeSantis and his team didn’t accept that “apology” for Mitchell’s “imprecise” language. Instead, they laughed at it, and Jeremey Redfern, who serves as DeSantis’ press secretary, confirmed in the aftermath that a full boycott of NBC News’ properties is now underway. That’s how you handle a biased press. Starve the beast. Republicans don’t need Andrea Mitchell.