Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida appears to have turned on many of the news outlets that once promoted his candidacy for the G.O.P. nomination for being unfair in their coverage.
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Desperate to make his case that he is a better candidate than Mr. Trump — while trailing by wide margins in recent polls — Mr. DeSantis seems to have turned on many of the news outlets that once promoted his candidacy, for being unfair in their coverage.
“He’s got basically a Praetorian Guard of the conservative media — Fox News, the websites, all this stuff,” Mr. DeSantis told reporters outside his campaign headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa. “They just don’t hold him accountable because they’re worried about losing viewers. And they don’t want to have the ratings go down.”
He added: “That’s just the reality. That’s just the truth, and I’m not complaining about it. I’d rather that not be the case. But that’s just, I think, an objective reality.”
It was the most animated version of a message that Mr. DeSantis, despite saying he is not complaining, has delivered repeatedly over the last several days. While the Florida governor’s own criticisms of Mr. Trump are relatively muted, he has urged conservative news media to be more critical.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ron DeSantis of Florida has increasingly focused on a peculiar target as he looks to win the Republican nomination: the conservative news media ecosystem that supports former President Donald J. Trump.
Desperate to make his case that he is a better candidate than Mr. Trump — while trailing by wide margins in recent polls — Mr. DeSantis seems to have turned on many of the news outlets that once promoted his candidacy, for being unfair in their coverage.
“He’s got basically a Praetorian Guard of the conservative media — Fox News, the websites, all this stuff,” Mr. DeSantis told reporters outside his campaign headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa.
But he and his team have also taken to attacking Fox News, which was glowing in its coverage of Mr. DeSantis until it circled the wagons for Mr. Trump once the former president was first indicted in March 2023.
But for all the attacks, Mr. DeSantis has continued to spend a fair amount of time on the Fox News airwaves, including in a town hall-style interview earlier this week and two appearances on Friday after he lobbed shots at the network.
As for other conservative media outlets, Newsmax — often friendly to Mr. Trump — aired a Christmas special about Mr. DeSantis and his family late last year.
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