Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, is fighting everyone who he sees as getting in the way of his goals. The Republican governor has made it clear that he won’t engage in the same tricks with the media or Democrats as his predecessors. He allegedly started a feud with the largest television network in the nation.
DeSantis has made the decision to stop appearing on MSNBC and NBC News. Now, according to reports, members of his administration are likewise avoiding the network and declining to speak with reporters about their inquiries. The Huffington Post claimed in February that a conversation between anchor Andrea Mitchell and Vice President Kamala Harris led to the governor’s decision to avoid the network.
To all of the bookers and producers reaching out to our office from @NBCNews and @MSNBC for @GovRonDeSantis to join your shows, this will be the standard response from our office until @mitchellreports apologizes and your track record improves. pic.twitter.com/8kQcLLEVzW
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 22, 2023
DeSantis doesn’t want “slavery or the aftermath of slavery” to be taught to schoolchildren in Florida, Mitchell stated during the interview. Then, she added clarification, indicating that he is against the AP African-American studies program. Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, declared on Twitter that the governor will refrain from speaking to any representatives of NBC Universal or its affiliated networks until Mitchell admits to lying.
The administration has discontinued any communication with the network in the following weeks. According to Jeremy Redfern, the deputy press secretary for DeSantis, there won’t be any cooperation with NBC until the news organization “display[s] a consistent track of truthful reporting.”
DeSantis has not been on any NBC channel in six years. The governor isn’t the first politician to pick and choose what networks he will appear on. Former President Donald Trump constantly lashed out against CNN.
While he was a member of the US Senate, former President Barack Obama steadfastly declined to appear on Fox News for a period of two years. Only until he began to run for president in 2008 did he return to the network.
