DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw touts blocking access to liberal media 'activists': 'Cut them off' | Fox News
By: Joseph Wulfsohn
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
AVENTURA, FLA. - Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director for the Ron DeSantis reelection campaign, touted the strategy of blocking access to legacy media outlets she and others deem "liberal activists."
In recent months, journalists from the Washington Post, NPR, Politico, New York Magazine and Vanity Fair have complained about the growing trend among Republicans running in the 2022 midterms who are not granting access to campaign events.
Speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Florida, Pushaw urged conservatives to "reject the premise" that journalists are "somehow gatekeepers or arbiters of truth" and that calling out the media's double standards on how they cover Republicans versus Democrats "is not enough."
"The left does not care if you think that they're hypocrites. The left does not care if we notice the double standard in which they cover, let's say, [Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Charlie Crist versus Governor DeSantis… Actually, they relish in it, I would say. A lot of these media activists relish in this raw exercise of power, and that's what it is," Pushaw told the conservative audience on Tuesday. "They see themselves not as journalists, not as reporters, not as investigators but as activists, but as advocates, as political operatives, as gatekeepers and as arbiters of truth. Like they believe that they can define reality. If, you know, they stick to their talking points and censor and attack all those and discredit those dissenting views."
DeSantis campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw speaks at the National Conservatism conference in Aventura, Fla. on September 13, 2022. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
Pushaw stressed it's "not just bias" that journalists have towards Republicans, telling conservatives "It's contempt," adding "they hate you," "us" and "everything that we stand for."
"So what do we do? We cut them off," Pushaw said. "Treat them like activists because that's what they are… You're on a campaign helping a Republican candidate get elected, would you allow a Democrat tracker that you recognize into a private campaign event? I would hope not. That's how you should view mainstream media activists…. They are not there to report fairly on you."
The DeSantis aide, who previously served as press secretary for the governor's official office, asserted that part of the media's "power" comes from the perception among Americans that they have "access to both sides." Pushaw herself admitted she had allowed access to the liberal media in the past but stopped when she "realized that that's pointless."
DeSantis campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw speaks during a panel discussion at the National Conservatism conference in Aventura, Fla. on September 13, 2022. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
"They need access or else if they have no access to any conservatives, any Republican elected officials, then they are seen by everybody as what they are, which is Democratic Party communication operators and activists. So you do not have to grant them access," Pushaw said.
Pushaw highlighted how the Republican Party of Florida's Sunshine Summit in July "did not allow all legacy media activists to attend," mocking how journalists who "showed up and "waited outside the hotel the entire day" and complained about it on Twitter "but that was that."
"That was it. Nothing else happened," Pushaw said. "And so I think, you know, sometimes conservatives worry a lot about, like, what will happen, what was the backlash, the criticism we'll get it when we don't allow them in. No- you worry more than what actually comes to pass."
DeSantis campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw speaks at the National Conservatism conference in Aventura, Fla. on September 13, 2022. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)
She did acknowledge that some legacy journalists who "have proven themselves not to be activists" and have a track record of offering fair coverage were allowed to attend the Sunshine Summit, but that DeSantis would boost the platform of independent and conservative journalists by granting them exclusive interviews, something liberal outlets desperately seek.
Before joining the DeSantis campaign earlier this year, Pushaw emerged as the outspoken press secretary for the governor, serving as his chief warrior in the battlefield of Twitter against his media critics.
DeSantis is running for reelection against Charlie Crist, a former congressman and former governor of Florida. The incumbent currently has a four-point advantage over Crist, according the RealClearPolitics average of polls. However, many in the Republican Party are buzzing about a potential run for president in 2024, particularly if former President Trump chooses not to seek a third bid for the White House.
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So the new game is to blame the media for their own dystopian views.
It almost sounds like she is saying that the media will shine a light on them so shut them out...
I guess some of the liberal media makes christo-fascism seem like a bad thing...
We can't have them reporting on what we say, we need to just not grant them access....
The maga generation, becoming more totalitarian every day.
It's the old, "I know you are but what am I" game. They are running ads in Washington saying that Biden is going to raise taxes on those making LESS than 400k a year. Literally the exact opposite of the truth.. Spreading fear is all the GOP has these days.
lies is the only thing trump's mentally challenged base wants to hear.
LOL, it's the media's fault we are really the good guys looking out for the citizens.
I don't think I have seen this woman before but I gotta say, she looks a little plastic...
she's a political climber and thinks she's found the new rwnj messiah in florida.
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Oh JFC, another crazy bitch associated with all the crazy bitches and bastards in today's gop/gqp.
It appears you have to be a hateful whackjob to be associated with them nowadays.
another trumpster bimbo that has misplaced her helmet with the bicycle handlebars bolted to it.
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She looks a whole lot insane.
Crazy eyes.
AKA "Manson Lamps".
The same people outraged by this are fine with Democrats boycotting Fox News.
When was the last time Joe Biden gave an interview to Fox News?
“…Fox News.”
‘News’ is a misnomer used in this context.
I would hardly equate blocking access to an event with not giving an interview...
welcome to magaland, the false equivalency paradise...
Why the fuck would he interview with faux 'news' in the first place?
Why don't you deflect elsewhere?
I'm actually surprised these liberal rags aren't crying that they are suppressing the 1st amendment. Instead they are just crying.
I am not surprised you could care less what your party does.
It's flattering that you think you know me. Care to try to be wrong a second time?
So instead of putting forth a comment about what the article is about you just deflect...
I'm merely pointing out the obvious. It's not like I made a comment personal.
You didn't point out shit.
That's all he's got. Plus projection and denial.
This is long overdue.
If you refuse to report objectively, you're not a journalist, and you are not entitled to the privileges that actual journalists get.
And who decided what and who is objective? You? The republicans?
Seems you are ok with people not being allowed to see what these people do behind closed doors.
We already have a number of independent resources for that.
In what universe do you imagine you are seeing any measurable fraction of what either set of politicians is doing behind closed doors? I'm sorry, are we in FantasyLand? I don't see Cinderella's Castle anywhere.
Justify banning press. Ok...
They're not press. That's the point.
So 'Liberal media' is not press? Only conservative media?
"Media" is not "press". We have ignored that distinction for far too long.
"Press" are actual reporters who adhere to a code of ethics that includes a stringent prohibition against overt bias. Adherence to that code is part of their membership in the fourth estate. It entitles them to access that other people don't get.
When you're a member of the "press", you watch the game from the "press box". Your "press pass" gets you onto the field, or inside the police barrier at a crime scene or inside the safety perimeter for the NASA launch....or into the "press" conference.
A former publisher of USA Today was a close friend of my father. I was the editor of my school newspaper, and he took an interest in what he hoped would be a budding journalism career. He described it like this: "If I can tell who you voted for by reading your story, you'll be rewriting it."
That's "press".
What you see on Fox or CNN or MSNBC is "info-tainment". It is not "press" and should not be mistaken for such.
You can get nitpicky on what you this is press or not yet the fact remains they are picking and choosing what will be allowed and that is only 'press' that aggress with them.
In the same way I can get "nitpicky" about the difference between water and whisky. One is not the other.
The fact remains that unethical behavior has consequences.
That is personal opinion.
Ok, so from now on all political parties are allowed to only have their friendly media and no one else is allowed...
don't believe that bullshit commentary, I looked it up, online, in a new tab...
media -
noun
the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively:
What, that whisky is not water? Or that there is a code of ethics for journalists?
Let me help you.
Penthouse Magazine is "media". It's not "press".
The NY Post is media. So is most on line "journalism"
So you are fine with any political party only inviting press that is friendly. Being able to decide to not have any press they deem undesirable.
... the press is part of the media.
bfd. I was a paperboy before there was a USA Today.
Exactly.
This isn't a complicated idea. We will have a poor a "press" as we tolerate.
When we start to exclude media outlets based on repeated instances of unethical behavior, they will change that behavior.
That's true whether it's the NYP or Huffy Post or MSNBC or Fox News or anybody else.
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I am fine with unethical journalists being refused access to press restricted events and areas.
You know who else shuts out press that disagrees with him? Putin.
Christina Pushaw doesn't have to worry if she loses her job with DeSantis, Xi Jinping would hire her in a minute.
What fascinates me is the obsession that Americans have with authoritarianism, of which they are so critical, and almost as extreme as their fear of socialism. What comes to my mind is one of the final lines from George Orwell's Animal Farm "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." I think that if many Americans have their way, that line will soon be forgotten since Animal Farm is on the list for books to be banned.
It sounds like that is a pro-authoritarian comment. There simply is no good in authoritarianism, as it is the lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others.
Well, you'd be wrong trying to hang that on me, since I much prefer socialism and Canada is more socialistic than America for sure. And I think that a meritocracy would accomplish a lot more than a government where the captain of the football team is the most popular person in school. Am I mixing my metaphors?
Not trying to hang anything on you, just pointing out that you’re basically giving similar weight to American obsession (your word) with authoritarianism as socialism. I’ll chalk it up to in-artful wording. The pros and cons of socialism can be debated, but authoritarianism is pretty much indefensible in any framework.
You can't have socialism without authoritarianism,
What the fuck????????
You can’t have authoritarianism without authoritarianism. Whether you can have socialism without authoritarianism is just a debatable position for which your opinion is on the short list.
Great Britain does pretty good with socialism without authoritarianism
I'm obsessed with authoritarianism because that is not what I want for my America. I really do like that slogan, Land of the Free. Let's keep it that way
Freedom is a matter of degree. Nobody is absolutely free, ANYWHERE, unless you're a hermit on a desert island.
Conservative 'news' outlets that slant their "news" stories toward the right
Fox News
Wall St Journal
NY Post
just these three represent a large portion of national news readership and viewer ship
Fox has been #1 in cable news for years, the Wall St Journal has the largest circulation of any newspaper , and the New York Post isnt far behind.
It simply isnt true that the national media is overwhelmingly liberal.