Media Miss the Mark on DeSantis

Media Miss the Mark on DeSantis

Send in the clowns!

No, don't bother. They're already here. Their name is legion and they try to overwhelm us with their sagacity and wit. They are the media.

Once again they have shown their ineptitude and bias against people of faith with their coverage of the most recent election, the stench of which still reeks in everyone's nose.

The latest object of their ire is the indomitable Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, just reelected by a 20-point margin over the perennial loser known as Charlie Crist. His massive plurality evokes instant images of presidential potency.

In a fit of jealous infantilism, former President Donald Trump, renowned for his snarky nicknames for political opponents, has dubbed him "Ron DeSanctimonious." I'm no linguist, but I know what DeSantis means, whether in Latin, Italian, Spanish, and maybe even Portuguese. He is "Of the Saints," or, I would suggest, if Donald insists on a nickname, "DeSanctissimus."

And indeed the fine Governor of the fine state of Florida is a fine saintly man.

But you'd never know it from reading some of the acidic press coverage he has received in the very state he has governed so well over the past few years. Not even one big city newspaper in Florida supported his bid for reelection.

Here are a few local media snippets, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

The Miami Herald complains he has made Florida a "mean place," where dissent is trampled upon and winning is everything. Yet his alleged meanness did not prevent him from winning Miami Dade County, which is 70% Latino, with 55% of the vote.

The Tampa Bay Times calls him a "bully," but despite their trash talk, he somehow charmed his way to 54% of the vote in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located.

The Palm Beach Coast Post accuses him of manufacturing a cultural war drama, but he nevertheless convinced 51% of the voters in their county to cast their ballots for him anyway.

Despite these big city complaints, DeSantis took 55% of the urban ballot statewide. So much for the influence of our sanctimonious media experts.

Out in the real world away from these urban oases, DeSanctissimus did even better, capturing 70% of the vote in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, all of which were hard-hit by Hurricane Ian just a few weeks ago.

There was a red drizzle nationwide, but a torrent in Florida.

Why, when they are so obviously out of touch, are editors surprised that people don't read newspapers anymore, and no one believes what they see or hear on TV, radio, or from the inept White House press mouthpiece? We are not so easily fooled. But the spin is so great that I'm reminded of St. Thomas More's comment to William Roper in A Man for all Seasons: "We must just pray that when your head's finished turning, your face is to the front again."

At the October 24 gubernatorial debate vs. Crist, DeSantis confirmed his pro-life stance. To illustrate the value of just one human life, he told the story of an impoverished woman from Jamaica who was seeking an abortion in Florida 40 years ago. At the very door of the abortionary she changed her mind, and instead chose to welcome a new-born daughter into the world.

DeSantis said he was honored to have recently appointed that young woman, born 40 years ago, as the first Jamaican-American justice in the history of the Florida Supreme Court.

Forget about all the meanness, bigotry, bullying and cultural warfare that exists only in the airy minds of mindless media. Here is the real story: There is nothing meaner, more bullying, more culturally vicious than the crime of abortion.

But rather than focus on the good that this Man of the Saints has done, our one-sided, self-absorbed, half-educated, mutually adoring media cannot condescend to acknowledge the benefit of a principled, honest and dedicated man of the people who doesn’t care a whit what they think.

If they do.