CNN Tonight host Alisyn Camerota accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of “cancel culture” on Monday thus demonstrating she has no idea what cancel culture actually is. Elsewhere on the panel, network anchor John Berman would suggest that the government telling government-run schools what to teach is an example of “big government.”
Camerota was lamenting the idea of a “culture war,” when she took a veiled shot at her former employer, Fox News, “I just think it's easy. I think the culture war stuff is easy. It's not -- it's – policy’s hard. Just going after school books, everybody understands, you have a personal reference with school books, cops, law and order that hits, you know, somewhere viscerally. I feel like that all that stuff, the culture war, there are networks who have made their business model based on all of that.”
After former Bush and McCain advisor Mark McKinnon noted that “he’s framing it also as parental control,” Berman channeled CNN’s earlier coverage when he noted that:
It's interesting though, CNN has reporting today, Jeff Zeleny, Steve Contorno and others though. You talked about, he's running against the idea of government getting too much in your lives. There are Republicans that they are hearing from who are saying that one of the things DeSantis is actually doing that might bite him also, is he's actually a sort of big government in a way cracking down on Disney, telling schools what they have to do and what they have to teach.
Not giving Disney a special status is not “big government” nor is having curriculum policies and conservativism has never looked fondly at unelected bureaucrats being able to set policy. Nevetheless, Berman observed, “It's not a very libertarian way of doing things, which there are some Republicans who — that orthodoxy still appeals to them less than—”
Reacting to all of this, Camerota jumped in to add, “Yeah, and, by the way, I've talked about this before. I'm so turned around with cancel culture. Ron DeSantis is canceling curriculum that he doesn't personally like but he doesn't call that cancel culture.”
Every state—red, blue, or purple — has politically-motivated curriculum policies to guard against radicalism and partisanship, but only when DeSantis applied these standards to relevant materials is it considered “cancel culture.”
This segment was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.
Here is a transcript for the February 21 show:
CNN Tonight
2/20/2023
10:09 PM ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: I just think it's easy. I think the culture war stuff is easy. It's not -- it's – policy’s hard. Just going after school books, everybody understands, you have a personal reference with school books, cops, law and order that hits, you know, somewhere viscerally. I feel like that all that stuff, the culture war, there are networks who have made their business model based on all of that.
MARK MCKINNON: Yeah. He's framing it also as parental control, and this is COVID-related too. Like "all of this stuff that's happening that we didn't know about, and shouldn't parents have a say?" And Glenn Youngkin did that very effectively.
JOHN BERMAN: It's interesting though, CNN has reporting today, Jeff Zeleny, Steve Contorno and others though. You talked about, he's running against the idea of government getting too much in your lives. There are Republicans that they are hearing from who are saying that one of the things DeSantis is actually doing that might bite him—
MCKINNON: Yeah.
BERMAN: -- also is he's actually a sort of big government—
MCKINNON: YES
BERMAN: -- in a way cracking down on Disney, telling schools what they have to do and what they have to teach.
MCKINNON: Yeah, telling businesses what they can or they can't do.
BERMAN: It's not a very libertarian way of doing things, which there are some Republicans who -- that orthodoxy still appeals to them less than –
HARRY LITMAN: He wants to be a winner, right, same as Trump.
CAMEROTA: Yeah, and, by the way, I've talked about this before. I'm so turned around with cancel culture. Ron DeSantis is canceling curriculum that he doesn't personally like but he doesn't call that cancel culture.
ALFORD: And there are parents who will be upset that A.P. classes, period, he's trying to cancel them, not just African-American Studies, he's saying get rid of A.P.
CAMEROTA: Because he's angry with the College Board.
ALFORD: Exactly. And it's a politics of punishment and heavy-handedness that is going to actually backfire in ways that I don't think he's thinking through.
