60 minutes one of the more respected investigative journalism platforms recently did a segment on Covid vaccine availability in Florida. The actual story was basically focusing on how the vaccine is primarily available to the wealthy but they ended up accusing DeSantis, Florida's conservative governor of pay-to-play because Publix made financial donations to his campaign and they were chosen as a Covid vaccine location. At this point, several people and organizations, including democrats within the state are basically saying the 60 minutes accusations are false. There was also some deceptive editing within the 60 minutes segment that makes it appear DeSantis appearing angry and evading the question when the full unedited version shows a very different reality. CBS is doubling down.
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A story reported by Sharyn Alfonsi and produced by Oriana Zill de Granados suggested that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis gave grocery chain Publix preferential treatment to distribute COVID-19 vaccines because Publix donated $100,000 to DeSantis’ reelection campaign.
If that is true — if DeSantis ran a “pay-for-play” scheme involving vaccinations for the coronavirus — that’s an explosive story. But “60 Minutes” really didn’t deliver substantial evidence that DeSantis did any such thing.
Yes, Publix donated to DeSantis’ reelection campaign. But that is neither illegal nor unusual. Big companies often donate to political campaigns of both major parties. Yet the “60 Minutes” piece used that as the main evidence for its premise that DeSantis did something shady. They really didn’t have much else on that topic. There was really no there there.
And the thing is, the part about Publix wasn’t even the main part of the story, which was really about whether the wealthy were able to cut the line to get the vaccine.
But all the attention now is about this sketchy passing reference to the Publix thing. As far as that goes, DeSantis said the reason Florida partnered with Publix was that Publix could roll out the vaccine in days, whereas other pharmacies could not move that quickly.
DeSantis has blasted “60 Minutes,” calling the claims “irresponsible.” He said, “I know corporate media thinks that they can just run over people. You ain’t running over this governor. I’m punching back and I’m going to continue to do it until these smear merchants are held accountable.”
He added, “That’s why nobody trusts corporate media. They are a disaster in what they are doing. They knew what they were doing was a lie.”
In a statement, Publix said, “The irresponsible suggestion that there was a connection between campaign contributions made to Governor DeSantis and our willingness to join other pharmacies in support of the state’s vaccine distribution efforts is absolutely false and offensive.”
Even Democrats are blasting the story.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, who is a Democrat, tweeted, “I said this before and I’ll say it again. (Publix) was recommended by (Florida Division of Emergency Management) and (Florida Department of Public Health) as the other pharmacies were not ready to start. Period! Full Stop! No one from the Governor’s office suggested Publix. It’s just absolute malarkey.”
Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, another Democrat, called the “60 Minutes” piece “intentionally false.”
https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2021/60-minutes-misses-the-mark-in-its-story-about-florida-gov-ron-desantis-and-covid-19-vaccines/