Media outlets lie about a "DeSantis bill"

No, Ron DeSantis isn't trying to make bloggers register with the state.

Dear Friends –

Here are a few stories I’ve been keeping an eye on.

1.) DeSantis isn’t supporting the “blogger bill”

Although several MSM outlets have conflated Florida governor DeSantis with a proposed bill that would require bloggers writing about government officials to register with the state, he doesn’t actually support it. The bill was proposed by a Republican state senator. Even though the man acted completely independently, many outlets used the governor’s face in their stories, and The Guardian went even further.

Nope. He doesn’t. A Vanity Fair writer called it "Florida’s DeSantis Blogger Bill." Also wrong. And MSNBC said the bill was proposed “in Ron DeSantis’s Florida.”

2.) The reactions to Tucker are in

Yesterday, I shared that Tucker Carlson released the first of the January 6th tapes that were released by the House to him.

NBC News headlined, “Tucker Carlson, with video provided by Speaker McCarthy, falsely depicts Jan. 6 riot as a peaceful gathering.” CNN said, “Tucker Carlson, with help from Kevin McCarthy, tries to sanitize the very real violence of the January 6 attack.”

Among politicians, a few Republicans slammed Carlson, such as Senators Mitch McConnell, Thom Tillis and Mitt Romney, although none as wildly as the Senate Minority Leader:

Sen. Chuck Schumer: Rupert Murdoch “…has a special obligation to stop Tucker Carlson from going on tonight … [and] from letting him go on again and again and again … [because] our democracy depends on it."

It’s pretty rare to hear a full-throated call for censorship like that, and a column in the Daily Mail frames it like this:

David Marcus: “The $3 million, two-year January 6th committee was destroyed by a single devastating cable news segment - because the left was never interested in truth. They just wanted revenge.”

The National Review falls somewhere in the middle, with a more nuanced look at Tucker’s version versus the Democrat version that’s likely to ruffle both sides.

3.) Flashback: CNN was fine with mobs “assaulting Democracy” when the roles were reversed

In the summer of 2020, President Trump and his family were rushed to a bunker below ground while a mob gathered to protest outside the White House. CNN’s story at the time focused on mocking the president for underplaying the danger he was in … and it certainly made no mention of the citadel of democracy being in danger from the mob.

Finally …

When it comes to photographing Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Politico doesn’t mind aiming low.