Charles C. W. Cooke, a senior writer for National Review, penned a must-read feature on Rebekah Jones, a former dashboard manager at the Florida Department of Health “who has single-handedly managed to convince millions of Americans that Governor Ron DeSantis has been fudging the state’s COVID-19 data.”
The piece talks about all the help Jones has received from Democrats and the media in perpetuating the far-reaching claim that DeSantis has been hiding the actual death toll from COVID-19 in the state. As Cooke wrote, the story starts and ends with Jones.
“If she falls, it falls,” he explained. “And boy does it deserve to fall.”
The piece proceeds to dismantle the claim made by Jones that she was instructed to alter the “raw” data. Cooke wrote that if the claim was true, “it would reflect one of the most breathtaking political scandals in all of American history. But it’s not true.”
Freelance commentary writer Drew Holden took the baton from Cooke in a damning Twitter thread explaining “how the grift went on for so long. My hunch: unscrupulous media attention. I thought it was time to revisit.”
On background, Holden explained that Jones “earned media fame after she was fired for, purportedly, refusing to ‘fudge’ the [numbers],” before adding that she “never had access to data at all,” linking back to Cooke’s article.
Holden then lists a number of examples of the media — see CNN and MSNBC — being quick to give Jones a national platform to regurgitate the claims.
He noted that CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who excused himself from reporting on a real scandal involving his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, allowed her to “push unfounded conspiracy theories without even a hint of credulity, forget pushback.”
“Will we get an apology for this sloppy reporting, now that we know Jones was lying?” Holden asked.
In particular, @ChrisCuomo/@CuomoPrimeTime provided ample opportunities for @georebekah to push unfounded conspiracy theories without even a hint of credulity, forget pushback.
Will we get an apology for this sloppy reporting, now that we know Jones was lying? pic.twitter.com/1IQN96YK5s
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
And it wouldn’t be a lefty conspiracy theory if it weren’t endorsed full-throatedly by @JoyAnnReid, who was all too happy to talk to @georebekah.
Perhaps it isn’t @RonDeSantisFL’s honesty we should be concerned about? pic.twitter.com/djcWHjwq4n
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
Making a solid case for why these media outlets had good reason to question Jones’ tale, Holden observed that she was allowed to push “a narrative that just so happened to undermine a potential 2024 GOP candidate the press doesn’t like.”
DeSantis is also up for reelection in 2022 for a second term as governor of Florida.
It boggles the mind, then, that these outlets would’ve run with this narrative – absent any evidence beyond what one unknown person had said *about herself!* – to create this narrative that just so happened to undermine a potential 2024 GOP candidate the press doesn’t like.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
In further showcasing the media handling of the story, Holden shared a little about Jones’ background, such as being “fired for having sex with a student as a professor. Jones was married with kids at the time.”
(A quick perusal of Jones’ personal history should give us A LOT of reason to doubt her truthfulness, including a hundreds of pages long manifesto after she was fired for having sex with a student as a professor. Jones was married with kids at the time: https://t.co/1xYYZbuZaT)
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
Yet, national media outlets like the New York Times and NBC News ran with angles that painted Jones “as if she was both the victim and the hero.”
Is it any wonder that people believed Jones when outlets like @NBCNews covered her story as if she was both the victim and the hero?
Mind you, this whole saga was yet another invention. Cops sat patiently at her door for over 20 minutes asking her to come outside. She wouldn’t. pic.twitter.com/yvrFUuyFWR
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
Showing just how widespread the collaborative effort was to hoist Jones up while undermining a popular Republican governor, Holden shared how Cosmopolitan too got in on the act, before noting that this “isn’t even the worst of it.”
“[Forbes] made her their Tech Person of the Year in 2020,” he added.
I wish I was kidding, but this isn’t even the worst of it.@forbes made her their Tech Person of the Year in 2020. They even excused the charges against her!@FortuneMagazine named her to their 40 under 40 list in healthcare, a subject matter she doesn’t have any knowledge of. pic.twitter.com/KhRr3axpx4
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
On and on it went, with Holden noting that the Washington Post “even plugged her GoFundMe!” He also showed political operatives and Democrats engaging, including a potential rival in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
And the blue check cabal of fraudsters, like David Hogg.
If you’re not picking up a Trump vibe form the 2020 presidential election, you haven’t been paying attention.
@washingtonpost even plugged her GoFundMe!
I mean cmon. This whole piece is a PR dream. Read it for yourselves: https://t.co/ihjLosfbjM pic.twitter.com/xK6JJtBT1a
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
There are too many more examples to list them all here. This perspective was genuinely everywhere.
But here’s a few more from @YahooNews (tough look, @alexnazaryan), @thedailybeast(I mean, cmon guys!) @TheVerge (might be time to revisit this one!) and @Newsweek. pic.twitter.com/B0UIc9PsXP
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
We even had members of Congress get in on this one.@RepTedDeutch, any follow up on this conspiracy theory you helped give voice to?
Or from you, @nikkifried? Not sure this’ll help your shot at Governor, in retrospect. pic.twitter.com/paCp36Jy5U
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
Maybe the most committed to this conspiracy theory was twitter’s most unscrupulous doctor, @DrEricDing.
Here’s just a smattering: pic.twitter.com/LwWp6094Xk
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
And of course, the usual unserious blue check brigade was all over this one. I don’t have the mental energy to include all of them, but here’s:@davidhogg111 (go figure)@funder (maybe the worst actor on here)@donwinslow (see above) &@DWUhlfelderLaw (weird grim reaper guy) pic.twitter.com/ey0jg6lRHI
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
As is often the case these days, the real culprit is the wholly corrupt media, as Holden explained in concluding that amidst all the hullaballoo over right-wing conspiracies, left-wing conspiracies “should matter too.”
“As Cooke says, this is a classic case of a known fraud knowing her mark better than the mark knows himself,” he said. “While this may be an excuse for everyday people, that so many who are tasked with bringing us the truth fell for it is a damning indictment of media wishcasting.”
“I’ve talked lots about the ridiculous coverage of [Gov. DeSantis]. The treatment of Jones is an outcropping of the same impulse: a need for the facts to fit one’s politics, not the other way round. This time, it was all lies. And left wing conspiracy theories should matter, too.”
I’ve talked lots about the ridiculous coverage of @RonDeSantisFL.
The treatment of Jones is an outcropping of the same impulse: a need for the facts to fit one’s politics, not the other way round.
This time, it was all lies. And left wing conspiracy theories should matter, too.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 13, 2021
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