An LA Times master class in journalism

[Takket]

I’m not being sarcastic at all when I say this piece should be required reading in journalism schools and no one should be allowed to graduate until they understand and emulate it.

The media today is in this lazy place where rethugs have taught them to “simply report what we say and let people decide for themselves! Don’t editorialize!”

That’s bullshit. The media is supposed to tell us what was said AND THEN back it up or shoot it down with facts. That is how journalism is supposed to work!

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-03-19/florida-desantis-covid-awful

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, must have magic at his fingertips.

We’re not talking about his purported success at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re talking about his ability to snow the press into taking at face value the claim that his refusal to impose stringent anti-virus rules and regulations has been an unalloyed success.

The latest publication to fall into line is Politico, which on Thursday posted an article headlined, “How Ron DeSantis won the pandemic.” A companion piece observed that he has “survived the pandemic,” and that “Florida has fared no worse, and in some ways better, than many other states — including its big-state peers.”

We’ve succeeded, and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative.
FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS, LAST MAY
Leaving aside that this sort of coverage treats the coronavirus battle as some sort of sporting contest deserving of up-to-the-minute color commentary, the best that could be said about these judgments is that they’re premature.

[Claire Oh Nette]

1. Los Angeles Times is a great paper.

All the focus is on the NYT and the Post.

The Los Angeles Times is consistently one of the best news sources around. Read anything by Sam Quinones. The West Cost in general is overlooked and underrated (I'm looking at you, Heisman Trophy), and now that I live on the East Coast, I kknow why. We're all asleep.

Growing up with the LA Times helped teach me to read the whole story, and set the standard for journalism. At least for me.

[dalton99a]

2. The media is bending over backwards and sideways to prove they are not 'anti-conservative'

...

The struggle against the pandemic is still going on — in Florida and globally — so why the rush to declare DeSantis the “winner” of a war that could yet be lost?

Politico isn’t alone in anointing DeSantis the victor. So too has the Associated Press, which on March 13 posted an article stating, inadequately, that “despite their differing approaches, California and Florida have experienced almost identical outcomes in COVID-19 case rates.”

CNN came to a similar conclusion. “DeSantis’ gamble to take a laissez faire approach appears to be paying off,” it reported — though it was careful enough to qualify that its judgment applied “at least politically, at least for now.”

Indeed, DeSantis’ record on COVID-19 is attracting attention strictly because of politics. He’s being touted as a leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, as silly as it is to speculate today on such a distant a horse race. DeSantis’ COVID record is presented as Exhibit 1 for his front-runner status.

Yet it’s important to recognize that a state’s success or failure in combating COVID-19 depends on a multitude of factors, many of which are outside a governor’s control. Those who claim credit for good-looking statistics may be setting themselves up for a boatload of blame if the numbers turn ugly.

As we’ve remarked before, one thing that sets DeSantis apart from most other governors, red or blue, is his tendency to present himself as the victim of anti-conservative coverage.

He grouses unceasingly about being overlooked by the unsympathetic news media: “We’ve succeeded,” he said truculently on May 20, “and I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative.”

[Claire Oh Nette]

3. Floridians fled

Lots of folks from Florida come up to WNC for the summers. They showed up here in droves early last spring, and never left. Lots of them escaped DeSantis' free for all because Cooper kept slow walking things here.

We'll see what DeSantis' narrative is after spring break and the spike in numbers that follows.

He's being touted now because the GOP needs Florida to have a chance in 2024. They're not going to get a candidate from California, and the Texas pols are all tainted. Florida represents the biggest state in the electoral college they're guaranteed. They want to play identity/personality politics.

It's a long, long way to 2024. I'm hopeful money in people's pockets and shots in arms will turn people toward Biden and the policies. The policies. We've got to tout the democratic policies because we are not dependent on a cult of personality to win.