‘Your False Narrative Will Cost Lives’: DeSantis Fires Back At AP For ‘Partisan Smear Piece’ About Promotion Of COVID-19 Drug

Greg Price August 23, 2021 1:07 PM ET

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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida issued a scathing letter to The Associated Press on Monday in response to a story they did Aug. 18 that was criticized by his supporters as a hit piece.

The report was headlined, “DeSantis top donor invests in COVID drug governor promotes” and attempted to imply that DeSantis’ recent promotion of a COVID-19 drug from Regeneron was due to the fact that the CEO of a hedge fund that owns shares in the company was a major donor to a political committee that supports the governor.

A series of tweets from the governor’s press secretary Christina Pushaw criticizing the story led the AP to send a letter to DeSantis’ office accusing her of a “direct effort to activate an online mob to attack” their reporter, as well as calling on him to “eliminate this attack strategy from your press office.”

“I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the smear piece you published last week,” DeSantis began in his Monday letter responding to the AP. “Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received. This ploy will not work to divert attention from the fact that the Associated Press published a false narrative that will lead some to decline effective treatment for COVID infections.”

“That the AP has received vigorous pushback is something that should be expected given the brazenness of your political attack and the fact that your false narrative will cost lives,” DeSantis went on to say. “You cannot recklessly smear your political opponents and then expect to be immune from criticism.” (RELATED: ‘Irresponsible Mockery Of Journalism’: DeSantis Team Fires Back At AP ‘Hit Piece’ On Governor’s Promotion Of COVID-19 Drug)

“I stand by the work of my staff who went out of their way to provide the AP with the factual information necessary to dispel the AP’s preferred narrative. That their response was effective in exposing the AP’s partisan agenda represented a valuable public service, as it reassured many that the Regeneron monoclonal treatment is effective.”

“You succeeded in publishing a misleading clickbait headline about one of your political opponents, but at the expense of deterring individuals infected with COVID from seeking life-saving treatment, which will cost lives.”

“Was it worth it?,” DeSantis concluded.

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DeSantis Backhands AP Over ‘Clicks First, Facts Later Approach to Journalism’ Following Latest ‘Smear Piece’

by Jonathan Davis about 4 hours ago

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis lashed out at The Associated Press in a letter dated Monday after the newswire service published a “conspiracy theory” about him and his administration’s response to the pandemic.

The letter, to the wire service’s newly appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer Daisy Veerasingham, comes a few days after the AP pushed a “smear piece” aimed at DeSenatis and one of his “top donors” who “invested in a COVID drug [the] governor promotes.

In addition, the Florida Republican’s letter also addressed the AP’s complaints that an aide of the governor engaged in “harassing behavior” after the newswire published the story, which was made available to all of the newswire’s subscribers.

“I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the partisan smear piece you published last week,” DeSantis wrote.

“Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received.

“This ploy will not work to divert attention from the fact that the Associated Press published a false narrative that will lead some to decline effective treatment for COVID infections,” he added.

Christina Pushaw, who is DeSantis’ press secretary, was suspended from Twitter over the weekend after she called the AP out over its story.

The governor charged that “the purpose of the headline and the framing of the story was to smear me by insinuating that Florida’s push to expand awareness of and access to monoclonal antibody treatments was done to boost Regeneron’s profit, rather than to simply help Floridians in need,” though it “is not even a plausible concept.”

“The AP produced zero evidence that Florida’s efforts are being undertaken for any reason other than to help Floridians recover from COVID. This will have real consequences for people’s health, especially given that the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment has a proven track record and has been touted by both the Trump and Biden administrations,” DeSantis continued.

“This story is a baseless conspiracy theory.”

While Americans’ trust in corporate media outlets, DeSantis wrote, is already at “historic lows,” he nevertheless added that “there is no doubt that some will decline to seek life-saving treatment as a result of the AP’s inflammatory headline.”

“That the AP has received vigorous pushback is something that should be expected given the brazenness of your political attack and the fact that your false narrative will cost lives,” DeSantis said.

You cannot recklessly smear your political opponents and then expect to be immune from criticism,” he continued.

“This is especially true when the effect of your false narrative jeopardizes the health of those who could otherwise benefit from treatment with monoclonal antibodies.”

After expressing support for his staff, “who went out of their way to provide the AP with the factual information necessary to dispel the AP’s preferred narrative,” the Florida governor blasted the Associated Press for using a “‘clicks-first, facts later’ approach to journalism,” which he noted “is harming our country.”

“You succeeded in publishing a misleading, clickbait headline about one of your political opponents, but at the expense of deterring individuals infected with COVID from seeking life-saving treatment, which will cost lives. Was it worth it?” DeSantis concluded.

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Tempest in a teapot nonsense @!@.

Lying left leaning media not above criticism

Nor is the right leaning media. Note that unlike you I did not pick a side. It takes 2 to turn a tango into a tempest.

In this case the supposedly objective non biased lamestream media took a political side and was called out on it.  

When have any of your seeds not taken a political side?

This one is a straight news article.  Not an OP-Ed piece.  I don’t pretend to be of no bias or a neutral observer.  I’m also not the issue here.  

And neither is big tech social media and their plagiarist fact checkers…

So you admit De Santis is right on this and hope the issue goes away quickly so he doesn’t benefit to much from a righteous backlash…

Let's just say DeSantis is one big heap of thin skin, one that whines a pimple into a boil just like his neighbor.

He simply won’t bend over and take it up the butt from the so called mainstream media.  He will figuratively kick them in the balls instead when they try it.  

What did I leave out? Feel free to add on.

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Let’s just say that De Santis is our next President if Trump doesn’t run in 2024.  

It’s a much bigger deal than that.  Typical of the mainstream media though.  

De Santis is right to call out the AP for their biased click bait article that was not fact based. Opinions and innuendo not based on facts do not belong in a news article.  The AP is responding in a juvenile manner to the righteous criticism they are receiving.  There’s nothing wrong with a governor promoting the citizens get the vaccine and if they get covid to get the therapeutic medication.  

This is another of many lamestream  media attempts to baselessly smear the great Governor of Florida over no legitimate reason, again hyping false narratives in an attempt to bring down a great GOP nominee should Trump actually decide not to run. Hopefully the media hype over this won’t reduce the demand for the medication in question by those who need it because of the supposedly objective non biased fact checker approved lame media playing politics and picking sides.