Ron DeSantis reality vs. 60 Minutes editing

It's been well-known that 60 Minutes has used lots of deception to push their narrative. The last time that was news was probably during the Space Shuttle program. Still, it's worth noting that 60 Minutes hasn't let go of that time-tested tactic. They're still too tied to the deception.

A perfect case-in-point is provided in an excerpt from Gov. DeSantis' memoir, which was published by RealClearInvestigations. They published a transcript of Sharyn Alfonsi's ambush interview of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Before they published the transcript, they wrote "Here, from 'The Courage to Be Free,' is DeSantis's account of what he describes as unfair treatment by '60 Minutes' of his handling of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in 2021; correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi suggested it was 'pay for play' favoring the Publix supermarket chain. As vindication and riposte, the governor offers an unedited transcript of his clash with the reporter -- that is, including his remarks left on CBS's 'cutting room floor,' denoted by RCI for additional clarity with [bold brackets]." Here's the interview with 60 Minutes edits highlighted in bold print:

SHARYN ALFONSI: How is that not pay to play?

RON DeSANTIS: That, that’s a fake narrative. [Begin deletion in bold] 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 percent 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. [end deletion] 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, [Begin deletion in bold] we can do this." They calculated that 90 percent of their seniors live within a mile and a half of a Publix. [end deletion] And they said, "We think that would be the easiest thing for our residents.” [Begin deletion in bold] So we did that, and what ended up happening was, you had sixty-five Publix in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is one of the biggest counties, one of the most elderly counties, we’ve done almost 75 percent 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. [end deletion]

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.

Back in 2006, I coined the phrase "Agenda Media". At the time, I said that the media was more interested in pushing their narrative than in reporting facts. Fast forward 17 years and my phrase has become a cliche. The late, great Rush Limbaugh coined the phrase "drive-by media", which got much more notoriety than my cliche. Still, I think my cliche is more accurate. Watch this video, then read the transcript above, to determine which is truthful and which is driven by an activist who isn't interested in the truth:

This interview shows a fuller version of the interview, plus an interview between Tucker Carlson and Gov. DeSantis:

Clearly, 60 Minutes isn't a serious news organization anymore. They're tabloid journalism.