In a thread posted on social media this week, public affairs consultant and former Republican congressional staffer Drew Holden highlighted the notably unbalanced way in which legacy media outlets have covered the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and New York’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo. As the thread demonstrates, the media repeatedly criticized DeSantis for his more restrained response to the pandemic, while his Democratic counterpart was frequently lionized. Making the uneven coverage even more “egregious,” Holden argues, is that “by the most critical metric, deaths per capita, DeSantis has outperformed Cuomo enormously,” with New York suffering what Holden labels “one of the most disastrous crisis responses in US history.”
While the dramatic difference in coverage of DeSantis and Cuomo regarding their actions vis-a-vis the coronavirus has been noticed by conservatives for months, Holden compiled a lengthy Twitter thread this week detailing even more fully how pervasive the attacks on DeSantis and praise for Cuomo have been from so-called “mainstream” outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and leftist outlets such as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Salon, and even foreign outlets like the BBC and The Guardian.
Holden began by calling DeSantis the “Man of the Year” for his response to the coronavirus crisis, then followed with numerous examples of how the media has attempted to slant the public’s perspective against DeSantis but in favor of Cuomo:
🧵Thread🧵
Today @bradyleonard & I agreed the 2020 man of the year is @RonDeSantisFL for his leadership in response to COVID, despite endless attacks from the media.
To add some context, I’ve put those attacks side by side with coverage of @NYGovCuomo.
Spot the difference?👇
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
He cited statistics showing the results of how each governor handled the crisis:
The worst offender had to be @CNN, which is no surprise given Cuomo’s brother works there.
But I mean. Cmon guys. This is egregious. pic.twitter.com/LZU7oJaVgl
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
Holden pointed out how the media tried to imply DeSantis did not care about the situation as much as Cuomo:
Truth be told, this entire thread could’ve focused just on @CNN.
Honestly I think this side by side sums it all up. pic.twitter.com/kETWgumhfc
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
I just. I’m not sure what we’re doing here @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/eC7iy8xFsb
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
I don’t even know what universe I’m living in anymore. @politico pic.twitter.com/nOqypFUJ69
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Here’s @Slate – God bless them – who compared the governors they thought did the best and worst.
I think the headlines say it all. pic.twitter.com/iQPsa6MQYe
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
About two-thirds of these comments started out as just “oh ffs” and this one from @DEADLINE sums up why. pic.twitter.com/jv2nxuKCe3
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
@RollingStone has gone from a reputable national outlet to a low-budget political operation in record time. More on this first line of attack later. pic.twitter.com/NjCdTUyjHj
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
Speaking of bad faith, the podcast bros over at @crookedmedia are doing more of the same. pic.twitter.com/khwOuLNzOD
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
And overseas media got involved too. Here’s @guardian with a side by side that brings home the difference in perception among our moral betters in the media.
Again, Cuomo has presided over a deaths per capita rate that’s almost double! pic.twitter.com/mCR9KL3gRN
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
A little bit of a different focus here wouldn’t you say, @BBCNews? Especially considering that, by any objective measure, New York was hit far worse? pic.twitter.com/okl2ISXeC1
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
You may’ve thought that surely this is mostly a US phenomenon, but along with BBC and the Guardian, @Independent is here to remind you that that simply isn’t the case. pic.twitter.com/ROhsllU01r
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) December 31, 2020
On Wednesday, DeSantis drew applause from elderly people in attendance as he told the press he had yet to be vaccinated for the novel coronavirus since he is young and healthy while the elderly had not all gotten vaccinations yet.
When asked, “Have you been vaccinated,” DeSantis replied, “What I’ve said is, I’m willing to take it, but I am not the priority; they’re the priority,” gesturing to the elderly around him. “I’m under 45. And so, people under 45 are not gonna be first in line for this. When it’s my turn, I will take it, but this is who I want to be vaccinated: I want my parents, our grandparents to be able to get it. Granted, I’m an elected official, but whoop-de-do. At the end of the day, let’s focus where the risk is.”
On December 16, speaking at Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, DeSantis asserted that restaurants would stay open in Florida. “We just want to send a message: Some may want to shut you down; we want to pull you up,” he said. “We’ve got your back.”
DeSantis began, “We’re happy to be here at Okeechobee Steakhouse to really send a message that at a time when folks in our service industries, particularly restaurants, lodging, and hospitality, have kind of taken it on the chin, particularly in other states, where they’ve been completely shut down. We just want to send a message: Some may want to shut you down; we want to pull you up. We’ve got your back.”
“If you’re somebody who’s a waitress or a cook or you’re a family-owned business, you’re an important part of our state,” he continued. “You’re working folks, who are working hard to make a living; you have every right to do that. You can take it to the bank in the state of Florida; you’re going to have that right defended by the governor.”
DeSantis turned to some data: “You know, there’s a lot of talk when it comes to COVID about the kind of infections, and tracing and everything, and at the beginning of this, restaurants in particular were singled out as kind of like, this is a place that’s really problematic. Most of the contact tracing that’s been done has restaurants as very low in terms of where these infections can be traced to. New York just did their big one and put it out I think yesterday or the day before, and they had 1.4% of infections traced to restaurants and bars.”
“So it doesn’t mean it can’t happen here, but I think we have to understand the vast, vast majority of infections are occurring in people’s homes, particularly if you have people getting together,” he surmised. “So closing a restaurant for indoor dining is going to lead to more people doing that in private homes, anyway.”
DeSantis then championed the rights of citizens to make their own, best-informed decisions: “But here’s the thing: even if you think that it’s more than 1.4%, the appropriate response to that is to inform people about situations where you may have a higher risk, not to shut down. Let individuals make decisions about what they’re comfortable doing. I can tell you, we’ve worked with these folks across Florida, and I know Okeechobee’s no different: they put every effort to creating a safe environment and a healthy environment. They’re not going to get customers unless they do that, and I know that that’s what they’ve done here at Okeechobee Steakhouse.”