CNN Admits 60 Minutes Hit Piece A ‘Massive Gift’ To DeSantis

Major backfire.

Not only did “60 Minutes” take a cheap shot at Ron DeSantis and missed, but the shoddy hit piece that aired on CBS’s flagship news program boomeranged so badly that even CNN has been forced to admit it.

The governor of Florida continues to look like a very serious Republican contender in 2024 and now that his leadership during the COVID crisis is clearly the nation’s gold standard, he has been targeted by the media to slow his momentum.

When it aired the deceptively edited smear job suggesting that he engaged in a pay-for-play deal with the Publix grocery store chain to distribute vaccines,  “60 Minutes” clearly believed that they would elevate DeSantis’s national profile and they were correct although not in the way that was intended.

DeSantis came out swinging, ripping into “60 Minutes” over the misleading clip; “They cut out everything that showed that their narrative was a piece of horse manure,” when questioned by reporters.

The tables were quickly turned on CBS which according to CNN’s Chris Cillizza, inadvertently delivered a “massive gift” to a man who could be a shoo-in for the GOP nomination if former President Donald J. Trump chooses not to run.

Cillizza bemoaned the sloppy work by the CNN competitor;  “It was a passing mention, without any other facts or context to back it up. Just that Publix was working with the state to administer vaccines and that the company’s PAC had made this donation to the governor,” and that “the insinuation here, however, was pretty clear. Publix got this state contract because of the donation. Pay to play. Favoritism. All that good stuff.”

He then pointed out a major problem with the piece, that it was denounced by two prominent Florida Democrats; “The problem is that, in the wake of the “60 Minutes” report, multiple Democratic elected officials have come out to debunk the tie between the donation and Publix distributing the vaccine.
Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, a Democrat, said that the news program had run “intentionally false” information because, he insisted, the producers knew that the county, not the governor, had been the one to request the Publix partnership,” Cillizza wrote.

Cillizza then summed up the major “60 Minutes” misfire; “The report — and the backlash — amount to a massive gift to DeSantis as he looks to his reelection race next year and, he hopes, a 2024 run for the Republican presidential nomination,” he wrote.

Not easily discouraged, CBS and “60 Minutes doubled down because when it comes to the media, there are never any consequences for misleading the American people.

According to a statement; “For over 50 years, the facts reported by 60 MINUTES have often stirred debate and prompted strong reactions. Our story Sunday night speaks for itself,” wrote the network.

The story may speak “for itself” but so does the unedited video of DeSantis.

DeSantis wisely declined to be interviewed by “60 Minutes” which was an easy call considering how unfairly Trump was treated for four years and to a lesser degree, how all Republicans are treated by a media that effectively functions as a propaganda arm of the Democratic party.

CNN is right, by airing such an easily deconstructed attack piece on DeSantis, “60 Minutes” has handed him the club that he will use to beat the press, possibly all the way to the White House.