A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is highlighting the difference in coverage of legislation he signed and a bill signed by President Joe Biden.
In a series of tweets, Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for the Florida governor, shared screenshots of news stories about two different pieces of legislation.
The first story was from ABC News about Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act.
“A tale of two bill signings with mainstream media coverage,” Griffin wrote as he shared a link to a story titled, “Biden signs sweeping health, climate and tax bill, a major win for his domestic agenda.”
1. Title adjective: “major win” pic.twitter.com/laq0Pv1uqT
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 18, 2022
He also pointed out that the story uses the actual name of the bill, but the headline calls it a “health, climate and tax bill.”
While the bill is titled the Inflation Reduction Act, several economists predict that it will barely have an impact on inflation.
Griffin highlighted that the story “quotes three bill supporters” but “no critics’ perspectives,” and “ends with 6 paragraphs of talking points straight from the White House, uncontested.”
5.
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 18, 2022
-Quotes three bill supporters, no critics' perspectives
-Ends with 6 paragraphs of talking points straight from the White House, uncontested pic.twitter.com/mI8iHjolNl
By contrast, the spokesman shared an ABC News story about Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The story was titled “Florida governor signs controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill into law.”
While the name “Don’t Say Gay” was widely adopted to refer to the legislation, the phrase “gay” does not even appear in the legislation.
1. Title adjective: “controversial” pic.twitter.com/wWwgtPHWYT
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 18, 2022
Additionally, Griffin noted the story “quotes three bill critics and three bill supporters” and “includes 9 paragraphs of critics’ perspectives.”
He told Fox News Digital, “Governor DeSantis has empowered our team to hold media accountable for inaccurate and disproportionately critical coverage, and we will continue to do so under his leadership.”
Conservatives have long claimed that the so-called mainstream media is biased against them.
And while most reporters probably would say they’re not being biased, it’s not going to help conservatives believe that mainstream outlets are not biased against them when their articles adopt negative phrases from activists to talk about conservative legislation while using the actual name of bills supported by Democrats.
