DeSantis Confronts a Murdoch Empire No Longer Quite So Supportive

[In It to Win It]

DeSantis Confronts a Murdoch Empire No Longer Quite So Supportive

MIAMI — In March, as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida laid the groundwork for his presidential run, he joined the Fox News host Brian Kilmeade to play a nationally televised game of catch on his hometown baseball field outside Tampa.

The questions DeSantis faced were as relaxed as the tosses.

“Locker room gets you ready for the press, right?” Kilmeade asked. “Because your teammates, if they like you a lot, they rip you all the time.”

At the time, DeSantis was seen by many in the Republican Party as the strongest possible alternative to former President Donald Trump, who had repeatedly attacked the network and had seen his relationship with its owner, Rupert Murdoch, evaporate.

Four months later, with DeSantis’ campaign having failed to immediately catch fire against Trump, Fox News is not taking it quite so easy on DeSantis anymore.

Over the last week, he has confronted noticeably tougher questions in interviews with two of the network’s hosts, Will Cain and Maria Bartiromo, who pressed him on his anemic poll numbers and early campaign struggles. It was a striking shift for a network that for years has offered DeSantis a safe space as a congressman and a governor.

Other outlets in Murdoch’s media empire have also been slightly less friendly of late.

[Blue Owl]

1. This one goes out to Florida's own very special Nazi, Ron DeSantis...

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