CBS News’s 60 Minutes is facing backlash after defending its controversial reporting of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s vaccine distribution plan.
“One question has come to mind repeatedly in response to every stage of this 60 Minutes story, from the story itself to the multiple statements to this … navel gazing … at the end of their show a week later,” said Daily Caller editor in chief Geoffrey Ingersoll on Twitter. “Who thought this was a good idea?”
One question has come to mind repeatedly in response to every stage of this 60 Minutes story, from the story itself to the multiple statements to this … navel gazing … at the end of their show a week later:
Who thought this was a good idea? https://t.co/7yCI1nwcIR
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) April 12, 2021
Ingersoll was responding to a clip of 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi defending the show’s reporting on Florida’s vaccine rollout, which 60 Minutes suggested could have been influenced by political donations in a pay-to-play scheme.
That characterization has been denied by both DeSantis and Florida health officials from both parties, but 60 Minutes spent little time airing the governor’s defense and prompted accusations it was “deceptively edited.”
THE CBS SCANDAL YOU MAY HAVE MISSED BECAUSE OF THE 60 MINUTES HIT JOB ON RON DESANTIS
“Some viewers, including a retired newsman, applauded the story,” Alfonsi said in defense of the show’s reporting before acknowledging that “many more comments condemned our editing and reporting.”
But that explanation was ridiculed by commentators.
“’To prove I’m right, I’m going to read the comment section from my blog.’ Nice work, @60Minutes,” Townhall columnist Derek Hunter said.
“To prove I’m right, I’m going to read the comment section from my blog.”
Nice work, @60Minutes. https://t.co/kfSu0fa3mB— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) April 12, 2021
The defense of the DeSantis segment comes as CBS News and 60 Minutes are under increased scrutiny for the segment, which the network has continued to defend in public statements since the episode aired.
“This is something that shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore. So many institutions in the media, including 60 Minutes, sadly, have now adopted an approach that essentially amounts to Democratic propaganda,” Federalist publisher Ben Domenech said Monday on Fox & Friends.
“DeSantis is a popular, rising politician whose success in dealing with this pandemic is, I think, something that no one can dispute, and 60 Minutes went after him, trying to find some chink in his armor, some way to go after him that would undermine him as a politician,” Domenech continued. “They were unable to find that truthfully, and instead, they engaged in this fallacious editing attempt to essentially silence his entire argument against their case.”
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The network’s defense of the segment also caught the attention of the Washington Post, with media critic Erik Wemple concluding the show could have done more to either corroborate or dispel the accusations against DeSantis.
“It’s one thing to press a politician on pay-to-play allegations in a news conference, especially after that politician spurns interview requests. It’s another to allow that notion to hover in a final report without a full disclosure to viewers what steps, if any, the network had taken to corroborate the ‘criticism,’” Wemple said. “Did it gather any suspicious emails? Did it speak to a whistleblower? Who were the officials who made the decision, and what do they have to say for themselves?”
