Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s team said they will not take questions from NBC News or MSNBC until host Andrea Mitchell apologises for misrepresenting Mr DeSantis’s bans on books about Black history.
Bryan Griffin, Mr DeSantis’s press secretary, tweeted a standard reply that it will send to bookers and producers from the sister networks until Ms Mitchell issues an apology.
“I think we need to step back. There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor,” the statement partially reads. “Please feel free to pass this up and around the network.”
The comments come after Ms Mitchell conducted an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. In the interview, Ms Mitchell asked Ms Harris, “What does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?”
That led Mr Griffin to criticise Ms Mitchell last week.
“Shameful. This question from @mitchellreports exemplifies everything wrong with corporate media,” he tweeted. “They're not accidentally terrible at their jobs – they're maliciously intent on deceiving people. @GovRonDeSantis never said this, and FL has extensive black history requirements.”
Ms Mitchell later issued a clarification on her show.
“In my interview last Friday with Vice President Harris, I was imprecise in summarising Governor DeSantis’s position about teaching slavery in schools,” she later said. “Governor DeSantis is not opposed to teaching the fact of slavery in schools, but he has opposed the teaching of an African American studies curriculum as well as some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since.”
