CBS responds after top-level Dem Florida official says he told them DeSantis-Publix story was ‘bulls—‘

A top-level Florida government official, who happens to be a Democrat, seems to be indirectly casting doubt on a claim by CBS’s “60 Minutes” that a segment about the state’s vaccine rollout used his information “on background” and that his perspective was included in the report.

Jared Moskowitz, the state’s emergency management director, rhetorically asked Fox News “Did you see the perspective that the person in charge of the Covid response told them how Publix was selected in their agency and that the contribution story was garbage?”

In what many contend is a deceptive hit piece with a political motivation, the long-running CBS news magazine has accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of being involved in a pay-for-play scheme for vaccine distribution with the Publix grocery chain.

In the course of an email exchange prior to the story’s airing, a “60 Minutes” producer purportedly told DeSantis’ office, according to Fox News, that its story deadline had passed and that “Luckily, we have already spoken to Director Moskowitz several times. We appreciate his perspective on the roll out in Florida. We have included the information he provided on background as it pertains to this story.”

Moskowitz took to Twitter perhaps in response to CBS’s additional statement to Fox News that “we spoke to State Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz twice, but he declined to be interviewed on camera for our story until well after our deadline. The idea we ignored their perspective is untrue.”

“I did speak with @60Minutes. Never said I didn’t. They were very nice, but I told them that the @publixstory was ‘bullsh**’. Walked them through the whole process. The fact that I didn’t sit down on ‘camera’ because I am responding to a 100 year emergency doesn’t change the truth,” Moskowitz wrote.

He has previously deemed the “60 Minutes” story as false.

Another Democrat, Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, blasted what he considers a misleading report.

“The reporting was not just based on bad information — it was intentionally false. I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County’s vaccination efforts but 60 Minutes declined,” Kerner said, in part, in a statement.

On Newsmax’s “Chris Salcedo Show,” Rush Limbaugh’s longtime producer, call-screener, and friend James Golden (a.k.a. Bo Snerdley) implied that “60 Minutes” wanted to tarnish DeSantis’ national profile perhaps as a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate:

I have no idea why they would do it, but the fact that they did it, and got caught being deceptive, speaks volumes about what CBS News has become…I would hope this is an isolated case with 60 Minutes…Democrats in the state are just as outraged as everyone else is over this yellow journalism that’s coming out of the 60 Minutes shop…let me speculate as to why some people have it in Gov. DeSantis.

They want to take him out early. Gov. DeSantis is seen as a threat because he’s a strong governor in the state of Florida who kept the state open. Florida’s economy is doing so much better than other places in the country because of his leadership…that sets him in sharp contrast with Joe Biden. It sets him in sharp contrast with the Democrat Party…

 

Golden called upon “60 Minutes” to retract the story and apologize to DeSantis.

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