MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell found herself cornered and forced to apologize after she baselessly claimed that Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t want the history of slavery being taught in Florida classrooms.
During an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last Friday, Mitchell asked why DeSantis didn’t “slavery or the aftermath of slavery” to be taught. The vice president of course didn’t correct her.
“Let me ask you, what does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” Mitchell asked.
DeSantis’ communications team responded by letting NBC and MSNBC know that they will not make themselves available for any media appearances until Mitchell apologizes for her “blatant lie.”
So, she did, though Mitchell still made her political allegiances clear in her non-apology apology.
“In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarizing Governor DeSantis’ position about teaching slavery in schools. Governor DeSantis is not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools, but he has opposed the teaching of an African American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since,” Mitchell said on her show.
But in a statement, DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said it wasn’t enough.
“I saw her ‘post script’ and it’s a typical non-apology response that doubles down on her lie,” Griffin said.
Jeremy Redfern, a deputy press secretary for the Florida governor, wrote on Twitter, “Once again, [Andrea Mitchell] is ‘imprecise’ in her description because she relies on unnamed ‘historians and teachers.’ Florida statute requires the teaching of slavery and its aftermath. We just know that ‘queer studies’ has nothing to do with Jim Crow.”
“Saying one was ‘imprecise,’ when what they said was a blatant lie, is not an apology,” Redfern later added. “MSNBC, NBC should not be viewed as an objective media organization. Stop letting the corporate media be the gatekeepers of truth.”
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6 Responses
The implications of her apology is also a lie. “Historians and teachers” makes it sound that all historians and teachers are unanimous on this point. It is more accurate to say “some historians and some teachers…”
A reporter lying about a lying politician is an oxymoron. There are only shades of disinformation and sadly, Andrea Mitchell, like so many other reporters finds it more convenient to use inaccurate sound bytes than take the time to parse a somewhat nuanced issue. Even the AP exam people acknowledged that some of the early draft materials for the new course were inappropriate.
Anyone that believes that the media tells the truth are ignorant
To coffee addict: Anyone who does not understand that a verb must agree with its subject is ignorant.
To huju: Look, he has an opinion on the Internet. You can’t expect him to know grammar too!
The last ‘apology’ I read from Mitchell was her saying, “I was imprecise.”, which isn’t much of an apology.