Assigned to cover the reelection campaign of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Miles Cohen, a young ABC News reporter, found himself stymied. The governor would not grant him an interview. Aides barred him from some campaign events and interrupted his conversations with supporters. When Cohen was finally able to ask a question about the governor’s handling of Hurricane Ian, DeSantis shouted him down — “Stop, stop, stop” — and scolded the media for “trying to cast aspersions.” The DeSantis campaign t
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a campaign event in Coconut Creek, Fla., Nov. 4, 2022.
Although he courted right-wing podcasters and conservative Fox News hosts, DeSantis did not grant an extensive interview to a national nonpartisan news organization during his 2022 reelection bid — and he coasted to victory, with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire now promoting him as a 2024 contender. Could a presidential candidate realistically avoid the mainstream media entirely? “I don’t think it’s been done before,” Klein said. “But I think the last couple of years in politics has taught us there’s lots of rules that get broken.”
“If you’re going to get elected president, you have to talk to people who have never watched Fox News,” said Conant, who believes the Republican Party’s underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms was partly due to an overreliance on speaking only to its base.
Florida reporters have complained about a lack of access to DeSantis since he was elected governor in 2018, a victory fueled in part by dozens of appearances on Fox News. His anti-media hostility intensified during the pandemic, when he faced criticism for reopening Florida early; in March 2020, a staff writer for The Miami Herald was barred from a news conference about the virus.
A top DeSantis communications aide, Christina Pushaw, has articulated the governor’s view of the news media in harsh terms. “They hate you, they hate us, they hate everything that we stand for, and I believe they hate this country,” she said in a speech in September, referring to the media.
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