DeSantis urges private action to fight against media ‘defamation’ at roundtable
HIALEAH GARDENS, Fla. (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis urged private action to fight against media “defamation” at a roundtable discussion with legal experts and others who said they are victims of defamation, including Covington Catholic Nicholas Sandmann.
DeSantis said over the last generation, corporate and “legacy” media outlets have “increasingly divorced themselves from the truth” and instead try to “elevate preferred narratives and partisan activism, over reporting the facts.”
“When they depart from the truth, a lot of times the truth’s on the cutting room floor, and the narratives that they’re supporting and furthering actually damage a lot of people with lies,” he said.
“We wanna be standing up for the little guy against some of these massive media conglomerates […] A guy like me, I have a platform, I’m fine, but there’s a lot of other people, I think, who get maligned unfairly, and then really don’t have the adequate recourse,” DeSantis said.
“There needs to be an ability for people to defend themselves not through government regulation or restriction, but through being able to seek private right of action,” he said.
One of the panelists who experienced defamation, Sandmann, made headlines in 2019 after a video of him went viral him wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, smiling at Native American Nathan Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, according to reports.
Many media reports at the time claimed the incident was “racially charged,” which Sandmann denied, according to Fox News. No racially charged words were exchanged.
“The biggest problem with what the media did to me was, when we talked about defamation, we talked about ruining a reputation. In my case, I didn’t have a reputation to ruin, I hadn’t started any kind of professional career, I didn’t have a job yet, I hadn’t begun my life. And already they had predetermined what I was supposed to be,” Sandmann explained during the panel.
DeSantis also touched on the Russian Collusion “hoax” and defended former President Donald Trump.
“They indulged in that for two years and it was almost all based on anonymous sources, I mean it all eventually was debunked, and even in real time people, people were saying this, but they just kept cycling in this. I think it just raises the question, you know, this obsession with these anonymous sources, where did that come from?” DeSantis said.
“It used to be rare that you would do it I mean, to assassinate someone’s character with anonymous sources would have been a total ‘no – no.’ Now, it’s just kind of like a normal, and actually the preferred method of being able to deliver content,” he said.
Other panelists included Dennis O’Connor, Former Secretary of the Citizens Defense League, Vel Freedman, an Attorney representing Zachary Young, Libby Locke with Clare Locke LLP, Carson Holloway, a political scientist, and fellow at the Claremont Institute, and Michael Moynihan, a former national correspondent for Vice News.
To watch the full panel discussion, click here.
