CBS News omits mentioning 60 Minutes report on DeSantis after network hit with accusations of manufacturing scandal

“When Florida state data revealed people of color were vaccinated at a much lower rate than their wealthier neighbors, 60 MINUTES reported the facts surrounding the vaccine’s rollout, which is controlled by the governor,” a CBS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner when contacted for comment on the matter.

“We requested and conducted interviews with dozens of sources and authorities involved. We requested an interview with Gov. Ron DeSantis, he declined; We spoke to State Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz twice, but he declined to be interviewed on camera for our story until well after our deadline,” the spokesperson added. “The idea we ignored their perspective is untrue. Counter to his statement yesterday, we also spoke on the record with Palm Beach County Mayor David Kerner. For over 50 years, the facts reported by 60 MINUTES have often stirred debate and prompted strong reactions. Our story Sunday night speaks for itself.“

The move comes after 60 Minutes was accused of selectively editing an interview with DeSantis and manufacturing a “pay to play” scandal involving vaccine distribution in Florida.

“‘60 Minutes’ tried to invent a scandal involving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ distribution of vaccines. To push the false narrative and protect its favored governors, ‘60 Minutes’ refused to interview people who disputed its false narrative, selectively edited video to hide facts, and omitted data that debunked its thesis and accurately describe Florida’s success,” the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway wrote in a column on Monday.

60 MINUTES SLAMMED FOR MANUFACTURING SCANDAL OVER RON DESANTIS’S VACCINE DISTRIBUTION

“‘60 Minutes,’ known best for pushing obviously forged documents weeks prior to the 2004 election in order to harm Republican President George W. Bush, took the approach of claiming that Florida’s vaccine distribution has been uniquely ‘chaotic’ and the result of some ill-defined ‘pay to play’ conspiracy theory developed by its reporter Sharyn Alfonsi,” she said.

60 Minutes aired a preview clip of Sunday’s broadcast that showed reporter Sharyn Alfonsi questioning DeSantis in March over allegations that he rewarded grocery store Publix with virus vaccinations following a six-figure donation to his campaign.

“Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign,” Alfonsi said in the clip. “And then, you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach.”

“First of all, what you’re saying is wrong,” DeSantis said.

“How is that not pay to play?” Alfonsi asked.

“That’s a fake narrative,” DeSantis replied. “I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks at Palm Beach County, and I said, ‘Here’s some of the options: We can do more drive-thru sites. We can give more to hospitals. We can do the Publix.’ And they said, ‘We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.’”

Alfonsi, in a voiceover, then said that Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said that the Republican governor “never met with her about the Publix deal.”

“The criticism is that it’s pay to play, governor,” Alfonsi told DeSantis.

“And it’s wrong. It’s wrong,” the governor responded. “It’s a fake narrative. I just disabused you of the narrative. And you don’t care about the facts because, obviously, I laid it out for you in a way that is irrefutable.”

Social media users pounced on the clip, saying that it was edited to omit DeSantis explaining how the Publix deal came about.

“First of all, the first pharmacies that had [the vaccine] were CVS and Walgreens, and they had a long-term care mission, so they were going to the long-term care facilities. They got the vaccine in the middle of December. They started going to the long-term care facilities the third week in December to do LTCs,” DeSantis told Alfonsi. “So, that was their mission. That was very important, and we trusted them to do that. As we got into January, we wanted to expand the distribution points.

Others echoed Hemingway on Twitter following the Sunday broadcast, with many characterizing 60 Minutes as unreliable.

Publix also denied that it received special access to vaccines, calling the claims “irresponsible.”

“The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is absolutely false and offensive. We are proud of our pharmacy associates for administering more than 1.5 million doses of vaccine to date and for joining other retailers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia to do our part to help our communities emerge from the pandemic,” Publix said in a statement.

Jared Moskowitz, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management and a Democrat, slammed CBS’s reporting.

“I said this before and I’ll say it again,” he tweeted. “Publix was recommended by [the Florida Division of Emergency Management] and [the Florida Department of Health] as the other pharmacies were not ready to start. Period! Full Stop! No one from the Governors office suggested Publix. It’s just absolute malarkey.”

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Democratic Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner also accused 60 Minutes of “intentionally” misleading the country.

A CBS News spokesperson told the Washington Examiner of the segment: “As we always do for clarity, 60 MINUTES used the portion of the Governor’s over 2-minute response that directly addressed the question from the correspondent.”