MRC Still Loves How DeSantis Owned The Libs By Treating Immigrants Like Pawns

Jeffrey Lord continued the Media Research Center’s narrative of praising GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stunt of flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard to own the libs in his Sept. 17 column:

Suddenly the media is freaking out over the flood of illegals into wealthy, white and liberal Martha’s Vineyard in the sanctuary state of Massachusetts — a “flood” of fifty sent to the far left Martha’s Vineyard by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

[…]What the liberal media has vividly illustrated here is the sheer hypocrisy of -the liberal media. Illegals crossing the southern border and flooding into Texas and Arizona by the tens of thousands? No big deal. 

But bring in fifty to the left-wing and white paradise of Martha’s Vineyard? And bam.

To borrow from the filmmaker Ken Burns, the authoritarian fist of the left comes down like a hammer.

As I said: You can’t make it up.

Kevin Tober cheered right-wing talking points being parroted on TV in a Sept. 18 post:

During Sunday morning’s “Powerhouse Roundtable” segment on ABC’s This Week, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short slammed co-anchor Jon Karl for crying about Governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Greg Abbott (R-TX) sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence respectively. Short accurately pointed out how the United States didn’t have this problem under the Trump-Pence administration because they actually worked to secure the border. 

Curtis Houck denounced commentators who argued that DeSantis could be jailed for his stunt:

While real Americans were either getting ready to return to work on Monday or watching NFL games, MSNBC had dialed up a Sunday night episode of The Medhi Hasan Show with a panel fit for some sort of hall of fame for idiots that called for Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to face “human trafficking” and “kidnapping”charges for flying illegal immigrants to the ultra-liberal, white vacation spot Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Hasan set the table by claiming that Republicans aren’t actually Christians because, if they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they knew He “wouldn’t be playing a glorified game of hot potato with babies” and “flinging unwanted brown people across the country.”

He added that DeSantis broke the law and if what he did was “not what most people would call kidnapping” or “human trafficking, I don’t know what is.” To address this, he said the federal government should use its full force to “see if there is a legal, crime case to be made” or risk more “brown families, brown children, brown babies [being] hurled…like political footballs.”

The Nation’s Elie Mystal was the main draw for this panel of kooks, but he first had to burst the bubble of his fellow nuts that “[n]ot every evil, sadistic, twisted, bigoted, racist thing these people do is illegal” because “some of those evil, sadistic, racist, bigoted things are just allowed in this country.”

Houck was paid to watch this segment and write this post about it instead of watching football or getting ready for work. Does that mean he’s not a “real American”?

Alex Christy got mad that DeSantis’ callous stunt was mocked:

Monday’s edition of The Late Show on CBS resembled more of an Orwellian Two Minutes Hate than a comedy show as host Stephen Colbert led a booing audience in wondering “how big of an a-hole is Ron DeSantis?”

Colbert began by showing an unflattering picture of DeSantis, “There’s an update about who might want to be the president next: Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis seen here—”After several seconds of booing from the audience, Colbert continued, “seen here watching your grandma fall into a ditch.”

Getting to the Martha’s Vineyard news, Colbert absurdly accused DeSantis of “kidnapping two planeloads of migrants and then flying them to Martha’s Vineyard.”

For Colbert, it only gets worse, “Well, it turns out, it was way worse than we imagined, because he actually abducted them from Texas. For a guy who acts so concerned about borders, he doesn’t seem to know where his state ends. So why is the governor– why? why, I say. Why? So, why is the governor of Florida spending his taxpayers’ money to snatch asylum-seekers in Texas? Because he can read their minds.”

[…]

Following another clip of DeSantis declaring people arriving in Florida in cars makes it more difficult to track these people, Colbert wondered, “Oh, I remember that one from the SAT “If two people are traveling in a car, and there are hundreds of different cars, how big of an a-hole is Ron DeSantis? Gaping. Gaping.”

Apparently Colbert got the question on what makes something funny wrong because all he’s got is name calling.

That’s an odd complaint, given how endemic name-calling is in the MRC’s “media research.” (i.e., fat jokes about Lizzo).

Speaking of name-calling, Curtis Houck was angered that someone was going to look into DeSantis’ stunt:

The major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have spent days bellyaching and screeching about Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) sending flights of less than 50 illegal immigrants to ultra-liberal Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, so it was only natural Tuesday that their morning shows would be ebullient over a far-left Texas sheriff launching a criminal investigation of DeSantis.

“Immigrant showdown. Overnight, a new criminal investigation targeting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who flew that group of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. This as new numbers show record apprehensions at the border,” boasted ABC’s Good Morning America co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos.

Liberal correspondent Rachel Scott accepted Bexar County, Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar’s framing as gospel:

Houck called Salazar a “lefty” in the headline of his piece, but provided no evidene to back up the assertion.

Kevin Tober turned to an anonymous source — which the MRC professes to hate — to attack another DeSantis critic:

On Tuesday’s The ReidOut, MSNBC host Joy Reid attempted to pass off Roberto Rodriguez Tejera, a well-known left-wing Democrat Party [sic] activist in South Florida as an objective Spanish radio host. According to a source who spoke to our colleagues at MRC Latino on the condition of anonymity, Rodriguez Tejera is paid by the Democratic Party a “monthly sum for alleged advertising for a weekly show on Actualidad Radio 1040 AM.” 

[…]

According to a source who spoke to MRC Latino on the condition of anonymity, “Roberto Rodriguez is a known Democratic activist, the Democratic party pays him a monthly sum for alleged advertising for a weekly show on Actualidad Radio 1040 AM and for segments with RoRo, as he is known in Democrat circles. He served as director of Radio and TV Martí under a Democrat administration.”

Rodriguez Tejera’s bio on the radio station Actualidad Radio 1040 AM doesn’t disclose that his show is paid for by the Democrat Party [sic].

Tober gave no evidence that he fact-checked his anonymous source’s claims — making this the kind of anonymous one-source story the MRC tried to discredit when it involved a raped child being forced to go to another state to get an abortion.

Scott Whilock took up the Colbert-bashing baton:

It’s beyond obvious that the late night hosts have no interest in appealing to any part of the country outside the rabidly liberal Democratic base. But Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night proved that his obsession with Ron DeSantis has ruined any possibility of “comedy” on the show. In a rant about the Florida Governor sending illegals to liberal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard, Colbert abandoned jokes for cheap partisan gibes. 

Colbert attacked the possible 2024 contender: “You’ll recall that Governor DeSantis tried to score cheap political points in Florida by dragooning people off the streets in Texas and smuggling them to Massachusetts.” Cheering Democratic stunts, the host continued, “Well, good news we found out that a Texas sheriff is investigating DeSantis’ role in flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Hell yeah! Get him!”

“Hell yeah”? “Get him”? Can you imagine Johnny Carson even or Jay Leno even trying anything so nakedly partisan? After all that build-up, here’s Colbert’s lame “joke.” 

You can catch it all on the new TV show Walker Texas Florida Martha’s Vineyard!”

Given that the MRC thinks making fat jokes about Lizzo is the height of comedy, perhaps Whitlock should sit this one out.

Andit wouldn’t be the MRC if someone wasn’t playing the George Soros bogeyman card, and Jeffrey Clark obliged:

A group funded by George Soros with nearly $1.4 million is behind a legal effort to punish Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Immigration activists sued the Florida governor just days after DeSantis took credit for sending about 50 migrants by plane from San Antonio to the liberal paradise island of Martha’s Vineyard on Sept. 14. Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed on behalf of the group Alianza Americas, “a class of affected immigrants, including the immigrants” on Martha’s Vineyard, according to a LCR press release. 

Soros funded Alianza Americas with a total of $1,383,947 between 2016 and 2020, according to Open Society Foundations records. The group describes itself as “the premiere digital organizing site for the Latinx community” on its website.

[…]

This is nothing new for Soros, who has bankrolled several far-left, pro-open borders organizations. In January 2022, a Soros-funded group secured a $158 million government contract to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation, in what appears to be a violation of U.S. policy. 

DeSantis, on the other hand, has voiced support for strong national borders.

Clark didn’t explain why migrants must be deprived of legal representation or even basic rights.

Torer returned to defend DeSantis’ own-the-libs mentality in a Sept. 27 post:

While real news outlets were tracking the path of incoming Hurricane Ian and covering the preparations that local authorities were executing in their towns, MSNBC’s Joy Reid went on another hate-filled rant Tuesday night about how allegedly terrible Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is. Reid couldn’t even make it a full minute into her show The ReidOut before falsely accusing DeSantis of spending his entire term “owning the libs” instead of preparing his state for hurricanes.   

“Florida prepares for a monster storm, with landfall expected tomorrow. Governor Ron DeSantis is going to be put to the test, forced to actually do his job. When he’s used to spending most of his time hanging out on Fox News and owning the libs,” Reid hatefully claimed in the opening preview of her show.

[…]

Obviously, DeSantis is doing his job as governor of the state of Florida. He consistently receives high marks for his job performance and is currently on track to win reelection decisively. Reid can’t stand that he’s successful and lashes out every chance she gets. 

Look for DeSantis to copy Tober’s statement and paste it into future campaign literature.