Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has been under sustained if falsely premised fire from Democrats and the media about allegedly banning all books for children and refusing to teach students about slavery or African-American history.
On Wednesday, Gov. DeSantis addressed head-on the book-banning “hoax” and false narrative about not teaching slavery or Black history in schools in a direct manner that provided facts to counter the fiction peddled by his critics, Breitbart reported.
Exposing the “book ban” hoax
The Florida governor and others in his administration held a roughly hour-long press conference on Wednesday dedicated to exposing and debunking the various hoaxes pushed by Democrats and the media about what the state was doing in terms of protecting school children from age-inappropriate materials.
The event began with a brief video presentation that stated at the beginning, “Here are the books parents found in Florida schools and reported to their school districts for removal,” and preemptively cautioned, “What was found is shocking, graphic, and we warn you … is not appropriate for children.”
That video then highlighted the graphic and sexually explicit pictures and text from a handful of books that had been found in classrooms or on library shelves in several school districts across the state.
“If you can’t discuss these books in a school board meeting, how are they appropriate for children?” the video concluded. “Children saw these images. Florida parents saw these images. And now you’ve seen these images. This is porn. These books violate Florida standards and curriculum. The hoax from the left is that these books were never in Florida schools.”
Exposing the Book Ban Hoax https://t.co/s0E3IVq4kh
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 8, 2023
After the video finished and Gov. DeSantis took the stage, he quipped to the audience, “I didn’t have to view what you just viewed, so — I’m glad. I’m glad I didn’t.” Then, following some introductory remarks, he added, “I think that that video, I think some of the news had to cut the feed because it’s graphic.”
Too graphic for the media, Twitter
According to Mediaite, that assertion from Gov. DeSantis was absolutely true, as several media outlets that were covering the press conference did indeed temporarily cut their live feeds while the brief video aired.
It had first been noted by the governor’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, who tweeted, “UPDATE: Some of the media had to cut their feed when books with graphic content were displayed that were found in K-12 school libraries.”
Mediaite noted that soon there were also tweets from various media outlets that acknowledged that the feed had been cut during the video and explained that it was because of the explicit materials being displayed.
Even Twitter moved to censor the presentation by slapping a “sensitive content” warning on the live stream posted by DeSantis and others on the platform.
Myths vs. Facts
As for Gov. DeSantis and his effort to separate fact from fiction and debunk the “myths” perpetrated against him and the Sunshine State, he also posted a picture to his Twitter account that summarized what he had discussed in the earlier press conference.
It is important to expose the “book ban” hoax about Florida schools.
Florida empowers parents by ensuring curriculum transparency and will continue to ensure that our tax dollars are spent on education, not indoctrination. pic.twitter.com/mQdr4Adbgj
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 8, 2023
