CNN En Español couldn’t resist the urge to turn a report on anti-communist protests in Miami into a cheap dunk on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, going so far as to air a false on-screen chyron that read: “Some Causes Are More Noble Than Others According to DeSantis.”
Watch Capitol Hill correspondent Ione Molinares’s commentary, as she channeled the rest of the media’s collective fury over the fact that DeSantis himself did not go down to Miami to personally handcuff protesters blocking the roads:
IONE MOLINARES: Well, for (several) hours this Tuesday, a part of one of the most important roads in South Florida, the Palmetto Expressway, was blocked by protesters in support of the protests in Cuba. But this protest goes against a law signed this year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis- and this happened last April. Here's what the governor said at the time:
RON DESANTIS: Just think about it. You ́re driving home from work
TRANSLATOR: Think about it, he's driving home and all of a sudden there are people shutting down the highway. We work hard to make sure this doesn't happen in Florida.
MOLINARES: Well, that riot law penalizes, for example, anyone who blocks public roads in the middle of a demonstration; the more people come in to demonstrate the stronger the fines. It was passed a year after a series of protests by the Black Lives Matter movement, which I remind you, was after the murder of George Floyd- a movement strongly criticized by some Republicans such as DeSantis, who used these very demonstrations in order to push this law. So, the protesters who blocked the busy highway could be subject to fines under the new law. But the governor simply avoided addressing the issue.
DESANTIS: This has been a long time in coming. And I think it ́s a noble cause.
TRANSLATOR: This has been a long time in coming. They are protesting against communist oppression and they are speaking out against that and I think it is a noble cause.
MOLINARES: That wasn't the question. But, perhaps those who pushed for the law, did not foresee that the protests could come from different.. spectrums... of the... political prism.
First of all, notice how Molinares bent DeSantis’ quote, hidden under the translation, in order to make the snarky point that “this wasn’t the question”. Here’s the full “noble cause” quote for context:
“This has been a long time coming. This is a...they are protesting communist oppression. That’s what they’re...that’s what they’re rebelling against. And I think it’s a noble cause[.]”
DeSantis isn’t even talking about the protesters on Palmetto, but the ones in Havana! But Molinares had to skip over that in order to echo the media’s phony outrage over the Cuban-American protesters, and tie it to a fake BLM double standard. This is textbook fake news.
A media outlet with a vested interest in presenting actual news would have reported that these protests were handled at the discretion of local authorities. A similar protest in Orlando was dispersed within 25 minutes and warnings were issued. There were actual arrests in Tampa, but national media isn’t interested in reporting any of that.
Furthermore, Molinares lobs the fake assertion that “...the governor simply avoided addressing the issue.” Again, fake news. DeSantis DID address the issue at a Tuesday roundtable with Cuban-American leaders in Miami: “The people understand the difference between peaceably assembling, which is obviously, people’s constitutional right, and attacking other people or burning down buildings or dragging people out of a car”.
Sad to see a journalist go along with CNNEE´s political agenda that casts her as insensitive to the suffering of a nation of fellow Hispanics in distress. This report is further proof that the biggest spreaders of Spanish-language disinformation are in fact Spanish-language corporate media.
Call out advertisers like Tide for allowing misinformation in the Spanish-speaking newscasts. Write them here.
