Florida’s Top 5 Fake News Reporters for the Week of 1/23-1/30
Florida’s Conservative Voice Presents Florida’s Top 5 Fake News Reporters of the Week: Every week, FCV will rank the worst reporters covering Florida politics. Our team, and readers, have noticed a stark uptick of fake news “journalists” that are consistently lying or misleading the public on Florida affairs in politics, ranging from Governor Ron DeSantis to COVID-19. In an effort to promote more journalistic integrity, these individuals will be cited for their attempts to mislead the public.
January 30, 2021 Updated 6:19 P.M. ET
FCV reported this past week on the Rachel Maddow’s odd purporting of a left-wing conspiracy theory that Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo lied about his treatment of COVID-19 patients. During her MSNBC show segment on the theory, Maddow spread unverified claims that Ladapo lied about his treatment of COVID-19 patients at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Maddow went on the show a quote from Florida Department of Health Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern that characterized her request for comment on the false theory “cute.” Maddow’s team cropped the quote, as Redfern exposed on Twitter:
Journalistic advice, MSNBC: trying to prove baseless conspiracy theories is already a waste of everyone’s time, but if you insist, try not to give your respective government source less than an hour to respond.
Cropping a quote to make your media outlet look honest is dishonest.
TIE for 4 & 3: Melissa Ross and Dianna Gonzalez
A couple left-wing ‘reporters’ were spreading the same fake narrative on Twitter this week about Governor Ron DeSantis: that his $80 million received for South Florida infrastructure projects came from President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, and that DeSantis is dishonest for taking credit for something Republicans supposedly opposed.
Below is Melissa Ross’s spreading of the lie:
In reality, though, it came from Republican Donald Trump’s Administration, according to DeSantis Press Secretary Christina Pushaw who also debunked Gonzalez:
These ‘reporters’ should do more research on the information they spread.
Welcome back to the list, Lesley!
Abravanel again called DeSantis “KimJongRon,” but that is not the topic of her profile this week. Instead, she spread a more damaging lie: that Angelique Contreras, a candidate for Palm Beach County school board in District 4, is an “insurrectionist:”
According to U.S. Code, the term “insurrection” is a legal one. Not only can a quick internet search show that Contreras not been charged with 18 U.S. Code § 2383, but no evidence has been presented that she promoted violence or committed a crime on January 6.
Common leftist reporter pattern: spreading misinformation.
Chait authored a misleading article in the New York Magazine titled “Ron DeSantis Goes All In on Vaccine Skepticism. No more playing coy.” Although it’s filled with mischaracterizations and falsehoods, FCV is focusing on the worst of it: falsely claiming Surgeon General Ladapo said something he did not say.
In a Tweet, Chait claimed that Ladapo “told people the vaccine is ineffective and unsafe”:
That quote does not exist. There’s nothing more to explain – Chait’s claim simply does have proof in the real world.
