'60 Minutes' finally responds to criticism for hit piece on Florida Gov. DeSantis: 'Some viewers ... applauded the story'



After a week of getting slapped around for a clear hit piece on Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing the executive of a pay-to-play scheme involving COVID-19 vaccine distribution, CBS News' "60 Minutes" finally responded Sunday night.

However, the response was limited to a claim that "some viewers" — including, the show noted, a "retired newsman" — actually "applauded" what was the program's deceptively edited exchange and smear of DeSantis. The short CBS News reaction said "viewers focused" on the edited back-and-forth with the governor, and it failed to address the controversy at the heart of the criticisms.

What's the background?

The long-running news show ran a deceptively edited segment with Gov. DeSantis on April 4, accusing the governor of corruption.

CBS News' Sharyn Alfonsi reported that the governor received a $100,000 donation to his PAC from Publix grocery stores, which later partnered with the state to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. "60 Minutes" aired a clip of Alfonsi confronting DeSantis at a news conference, accusing the governor of engaging in a "pay-to-play" scheme by giving Publix exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in exchange for the donation.

DeSantis told the reporter she was spreading a "fake narrative" and then corrected the record in an extended answer, which was cut out of the segment by CBS editors before it aired.

The news program's efforts were so egregious that even CNN's Brian Stelter pointed out CBS' malfeasance. And the Democratic mayor of Palm Beach County, Dave Kerner, came out in defense of DeSantis, saying the report "was not just based on bad information — it was intentionally false."

What did '60 Minutes' say?

One week later, after taking a beating online — both from the left and the right — "60 Minutes" addressed the controversy ... in a less-than-one-minute segment that appeared to blame viewers who "focused" on the show's deceptive editing.

Sunday's episode ended with Alfonsi addressing her hit piece in a "mail" segment about messages from viewers regarding the anti-DeSantis report.

"Viewers focused on an exchange with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference," Alfonsi began, neglecting to note it was her "exchange" with DeSantis that people were "focused on."

As she reported the messages from viewers, Alfonsi focused first on positive feedback CBS had received, including from a "retired newsman."

"Some viewers, including a retired newsman, applauded the story," Alfonsi said. "Ron DeSantis will continue to deny, refute ... call your reporting a witch hunt ... I can only hope ... that you continue to investigate and expose the truth," she continued, quoting "retired newsman" Nick Boryack of Vero Beach, Florida.

But that's where the glowing reviews of Alfonsi's report ended.

"Many more comments condemned our editing and reporting," Alfonsi said, without saying what the actual problems with the editing and reporting were.

"Shameful biased reporting — that is what you are guilty of. You are no longer journalists, but lobbyists and advocates," one viewer wrote, Alfonsi said.

Anther viewer wrote, "I have watched 60 MINUTES for decades. After you biased piece on Governor DeSantis, I will only watch it one more time. Just to see if you broadcast this message," the reporter said.

And with that, Alfonsi signed off without uttering a word about her role in the controversy, a correction, or any information on what happened.

Sunday’s @60Minutes ended with @Sharyn_Alfonsi reading comments about her shoddy hit piece on @RonDeSantisFL. She d… https://t.co/KtBAd4VpRE
— Brent Baker (@Brent Baker)1618187446.0

(H/T: HotAir)

'60 Minutes' gets torched on social media for defending controversial editing of Gov. DeSantis' comments



CBS News defended its reporting on "60 Minutes" that appeared to deceptively edit comments by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to bolster their accusation that he had abused his power to benefit a political donor.

After facing public outcry over the controversial segment, CBS released a statement justifying the report.

"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," the statement read.

"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 idea we ignored their perspective is untrue," the network statement continued.

"Counter to his statement yesterday, we also spoke on the record with Palm Beach County Mayor David Kerner," the statement added. "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."

Many noted that the statement didn't address the damaging accusation from the Democratic mayor of Palm Beach County who said that CBS neglected to include his comments defending DeSantis. The statement misleadingly implies that Kerner accused "60 Minutes" of not seeking his comment.

"No retraction, no correction, no apology. They're standing by this dreadful work, which might constitute actual malice, given Kerner's accusation, which they haven't refuted. Disgraceful," responded Fox News contributor Guy Benson.

The @60Minutes story accusing Governor DeSantis of pay to play regarding vaccine distribution was a terrible political hit job.
— Lindsey Graham (@Lindsey Graham)1617720580.0

"The @60Minutes story accusing Governor DeSantis of pay to play regarding vaccine distribution was a terrible political hit job," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Earlier on Tuesday, the governor addressed the controversy directly and excoriated the news program.

"They cut out everything that showed that their narrative was a piece of horse manure," DeSantis said to reporters.

"I know corporate media thinks that they can just run over people, you ain't running over this governor," he added. "I'm punching back."

Here's more about the '60 Minutes' controversy:

Palm Beach County mayor calls '60 Minutes' report on Florida vaccines 'intentionally false'www.youtube.com

'Absolute malarkey': '60 Minutes' airs deceptively edited segment accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of corruption



CBS News' "60 minutes" was blasted on Sunday by a top Democratic official in Florida and the state's largest grocery store chain after it aired a deceptively edited segment insinuating that Governor Ron DeSantis (R) engaged in a "pay to play" scheme with COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

On Sunday evening, CBS News' Sharyn Alfonsi reported that DeSantis received a $100,000 donation to his PAC from Publix grocery stores, which later partnered with the state to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. "60 Minutes" aired a clip of Alfonsi confronting DeSantis at a press conference south of Orlando, accusing the governor of "pay to play" by giving Publix exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine after he received that donation.

The governor said Alfonsi was "wrong" and spreading a "fake narrative" and proceeded to correct the record, but his long answer was cut out of the segment by CBS News' editors.

"What you're saying is wrong," Gov DeSantis tells Sharyn Alfonsi in response to a question about whether the Publix… https://t.co/raou7mFZKB
— 60 Minutes (@60 Minutes)1617578474.0

The Daily Wire reported the transcript of the segment, highlighting in bold the parts of DeSantis' answer that were edited out of the clip.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Publix, as you know, donated $100,000 to your campaign, and then you rewarded them with the exclusive rights to distribute the vaccination in Palm Beach—

Ron DeSantis: So, first of all, that — what you're saying is wrong. That's—

Sharyn Alfonsi: How is that not pay-to-play?

Ron DeSantis: —that, that's a fake narrative. So, first of all, when we did, the first pharmacies that had it 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 of December to do LTCs. 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. So yes, you had the counties, you had some drive-through sites, you had hospitals that were doing a lot, but we wanted to get it into communities more. So we reached out to other retail pharmacies — Publix, Walmart — obviously CVS and Walgreens had to finish that mission. And we said, we're going to use you as soon as you're done with that. For Publix, they were the first one to raise their hand, say they were ready to go. And you know what, we did it on a trial basis. I had three counties. I actually showed up that weekend and talked to seniors across four different Publix. How was the experience? Is this good? Should you think this is a way to go? And it was 100% positive. So we expanded it, and then folks liked it. And I can tell you, if you look at a place like Palm Beach County, they were kind of struggling at first in terms of the senior numbers. I went, I met with the county mayor. I met with the administrator. I met with all the folks in Palm Beach County, and I said, "Here's some of the options: we can do more drive-through sites, we can give more to hospitals, we can do the Publix, we can do this." They calculated that 90% of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. And they said, "We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents." So, we did that, and what ended up happening was, you had 65 Publix in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties, we've done almost 75% of the seniors in Palm Beach, and the reason is because you have the strong retail footprint. So our way has been multifaceted. It has worked. And we're also now very much expanding CVS and Walgreens, now that they've completed the long-term care mission.

Sharyn Alfonsi: The criticism is that it's pay-to-play, governor.

Ron DeSantis: And it's wrong. It's wrong. 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.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Well, I— I was just—

Ron DeSantis: And, so, it's clearly not.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Isn't there the nearest Publix —

Ron DeSantis: No, no, no. You're wrong.

Sharyn Alfonsi: —30 miles away.

Ron DeSantis: You're wrong. You're wrong. Yes, sir?

Sharyn Alfonsi: That's actually a fact.

"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," Publix said in a scathing statement provided to "60 Minutes."

"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," the grocery store said.

Florida's director of emergency management, Jared Moskowitz, the Democratic state official responsible for directing the response to the pandemic under Gov. DeSantis, came to the governor's defense and called Alfonsi's narrative "absolute malarkey."