DeSantis' Press Sec Skewers Media for Misleading Headline About COVID Deaths in Florida

Some folks on the left have been pushing COVID stats as some kind of a response to the catastrophe that’s happening. I’m not sure what they think that proves. If we go by the standards by which they judged President Donald Trump, then Joe Biden is responsible for every COVID death on his watch as well. So, if the point is to deflect blame from Biden, it’s not working.

Here’s one particularly despicable effort from a Lincoln Project guy, downplaying the deaths of our troops in Afghanistan from the suicide bombings.

12 people died in Afghanistan.
901 died in in Florida yesterday because of covid.

And you're mad at who?

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) August 26, 2021

It’s actually 13 American members of the military, and far more Afghans that this guy fails to even mention — with 170 deaths total.

Now, he’s trying to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in so doing. But in addition to trying to downplaying the attacks to give Joe Biden some cover, there was another big problem with the statistic: it was straight-up false.

Where did that statistic of 901 people dying in a single day come from?

It came from a deceptive headline from the Miami Herald and a deceptive tweet from the Sun Sentinel.

Florida’s COVID-19 resurgence: State reports 901 new deaths, bringing 7-day average to pandemic high https://t.co/kIA1jARmXG pic.twitter.com/VdvJOelfRj

— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) August 27, 2021

Deceptive headline from the Miami Herald. pic.twitter.com/vyIT43i51D

— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) August 27, 2021

Here’s what the Twitter ‘top news’ had as well, still up today if you search “901.”

Twitter top news with deceptive figure: pic.twitter.com/GE9TgAhsK3

— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) August 27, 2021

So, anyone reading that would obviously believe that 901 people had died in one day: August 25.

Except that wasn’t true. The 901 number comes from weeks of backlogged information that was just added in one day.

This is information that came from over four weeks of a backlog of deaths, not from one day.

Miami Herald headline: 901 deaths is the biggest one-day increase in pandemic history.

Miami Herald article: The 901 deaths actually took place over a period of more than four weeks.

They do this on purpose. pic.twitter.com/94SknHM2qF

— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 26, 2021

The actual number for August 25 was nine deaths.

No it was 9 pic.twitter.com/7sQLZxnzqO

— HeartOfRacing (@HeartOfRacing) August 27, 2021

Now, the reporter who wrote the Miami Herald story is trying to justify his headline, claiming that it was accurate because 901 were reported in one day.

The reporter responds.

Cetoute correctly notes that his story explains that “single day increase” refers to one day of reporting updates, not one day of deaths.

But here’s the problem: The HEADLINE doesn’t explain that. So people inferred that 901 Floridians died in one day. https://t.co/meO4mNRShy

— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021

Updating backlogged death data happens all the time.

Here’s an example from 2020, when NY added 3,778 new deaths to its total.

Nobody misleadingly reported it as “New York COVID update: 3,778 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history”https://t.co/iBeUiUQHyW

— The Nordau Center for Press Accountability (@MaxNordau) August 27, 2021

Obviously, many people — including the ridiculous despicable Lincoln Project guy — were taken in by the deceptive tweet and/or headline.

But, then you had people with huge accounts spreading this.

Vice President of Editorial & Booking for MSNBC:

Florida adds 901 COVID deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history https://t.co/k7lU4bQ5VC

— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) August 26, 2021

901 people in Florida died yesterday of COVID. Ron DeSantis should have to call every one of their families.

— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) August 27, 2021

DNC member using the lie to attack DeSantis:

To get a sense of how bad a job Desantis is doing, Florida reported yesterday 26,203 new COVID cases, the highest daily ever and 901 deaths today, the largest daily ever.

Florida has more deaths now than before vaccines were available. Total failure. #DesantisDestroysFlorida

— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) August 26, 2021

If it were just a one-off thing, one might buy that it’s accidental or a poorly-worded headline. But, the media “mistakes” always seem to go against DeSantis. Then the lie gets spread by the Democratic operatives, and one lie builds on another lie. It’s what they constantly did with President Donald Trump.

But DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, let them have it for their misleading effort.

“Factually accurate” but misleading narrative framing. Omitted that the 901 deaths occurred over a period of weeks, so readers wrongly assume it’s a single-day death toll. A lie of omission is still a lie. @MiamiHerald https://t.co/8ccnrqGFSd

— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) August 27, 2021