Global Courant 2023-04-25 12:02:27
I was trying to think of someone who has had worse press coverage in recent weeks than Ron DeSantis.
The Florida governor’s pileup has gotten so bad that not a day goes by without him being pummeled by the pundits. This is all the more striking as DeSantis has previously been held up as the man who could trump Donald Trump and steer the Republican Party in a new direction – an avatar of Trumpism without the baggage.
With Trump rising in the polls after the indictment and DeSantis sliding, the geniuses of the Fourth Estate are treating him like a piñata — despite the fact that he didn’t enter the race.
I’ve been advocating for some time that DeSantis should hit back at the former president’s increasingly harsh attacks. He has largely evaded or deflected these attacks and is at risk of being defined by Trump.
ELON MUSK WARNS ABOUT AI IN TUCKER CARLSON INTERVIEW; GASPARINO SUBJECT HIS INTENTIONS
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addresses Iowa voters on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
While DeSantis won’t announce his candidacy until the Florida legislature has finished its session, the fact is that Trump has pulled him into the presidential race. In the era of social media, you no longer have the luxury of deciding when to become an official candidate. DeSantis has also made some missteps, but while he loves to slay the media, the 180 turn to negativity reinforces and exaggerates his weaknesses.
Just over the weekend, two liberal female columnists for the New York Times torn Ron:
“DeSantis makes the mistake of believing the race primary is about issues, while Trump instinctively understands it’s about dominance,” said Michelle Goldberg.
Turning the other cheek “didn’t work in 2016 and it doesn’t work now. Witness the parade of Florida Republicans turning their backs on DeSantis and bending the knee to Trump in their endorsement.”
Maureen Dowd writes: “DeSantis appears vicious, lashes out at Mickey Mouse, immigrants, gays and women; pushes through an expansion of his proposal to ban school discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity to all grades, as well as a draconian ban on abortion after six weeks. He admonished even some high school students during the pandemic for wearing masks.” Not a fan.
But I’ve come up with, after some deep thinking, someone who gets hammered more aggressively than DeSantis, maybe because he transcends politics.
His name is Elon Musk.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk talks during a factory tour of the future foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory on August 13, 2021 in Grünheide near Berlin, Germany. The American company plans to build about 500,000 of the compact Model 3 and Model Y series here every year. (Patrick Pleul – Pool/Getty Images)
Now the sometimes richest man in the world has always made the news as he also owns Tesla, SpaceX and other companies. But ever since he set his sights on buying Twitter, he’s been consistently bullied by the left-wing media, who view him as an increasingly extreme right-winger. (Never mind that he just admitted to voting for Joe Biden.)
LIBERAL CELEBS, JOURNALISTS FURIOUS THAT MUSK GAVE THEM BACK THEIR BLUE CHECK: ‘WITHOUT MY PERMISSION’
So Twitter’s long-standing problems — some of which have gotten worse since it laid off 80% of its staff — have fueled Musk’s media antagonists. He has made things worse with some erratic moves and petty squabbles, such as denigrating the Times and NPR.
And he’s stripped hundreds of thousands of users (myself included) of their blue checks and ticked them off as what was supposed to be a verification process turned into an elite status symbol — for which users now have to pay an $8 monthly subscription.
Elon Musk’s Twitter removed the “state-affiliated media” label it temporarily placed on NPR’s account and replaced it with one that read “government-funded media.” PBS received the same label. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto, CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images (Photo illustration))
Musk removed the blue symbols of many great pundits, including Pope Francis and Paul McCartney. Oddly enough, Musk tweeted that he personally pays the fee for LeBron James, William Shatner, and a few other celebrities. (What, LeBron can’t afford to pay?) At the same time, dead celebrity accounts started popping up, making it clear that the process wasn’t working perfectly.
Politico writer Jack Shafer blames the press for hiding what he calls the “vapor trail of broken Musk promises and failed predictions…
“He’s slammed a US senator with a vulgar tweet, called a Thai cave rescuer a ‘pedo man,’ made fun of Bill Gates’ beer belly, and made fun of a disabled Twitter employee…
“This unbroken stream of Musk blarney and BS should be enough to dissuade the press from automatically covering the tycoon’s publicity hunt.” Except that Musk’s tweets—artificially amplified by an algorithm—are outrageous, funny, incendiary, exasperating—filling the void left by Trump.
MEDIA FALLS ON CLARENCE THOMAS
Shafer said: “Reporters on the Musk beat have a point when they say you never know which one of Musk’s outrageous attempts at attracting attention will actually turn into real news. He will do everything he can to put it and himself in the spotlight. news, and every day the news media rewards his showboating with an avalanche of running coverage and commentary.” Guilty as charged.
In the Atlantic Ocean, Charlie Warzel says Musk’s transformation of the site – filled with “culture war nag” – “is to see how the platform works at its purest, most basic level. Forget offensive; his demeanor is cringe. It shows us what’s always deep has existed within Twitter’s molten core, an elementary feeling shared by the platform’s most ardent users and powering much of social media: shame.”
Well, I’m not ashamed, even though Twitter can be a sewer sometimes. The app also has its upside, providing the latest news and conversation on everything from policy issues to media to cute dog videos.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Now I think Musk’s bad press trumps DeSantis’s bad press, but you might disagree. Maybe you decide to tweet about it.
Howard Kurtz is the host of FOX News Channel’s MediaBuzz (Sunday 11am-12pm ET). Based in Washington, DC, he joined the network in July 2013 and makes regular appearances Special report with Bret Baier and other programs.
