A hot mic caught a Florida reporter acknowledging what conservatives have claimed — left-leaning reporters are often more activist than journalists.
On Tuesday, a rolling camera caught a conversation by First Coast News reporter Atyia Collins at an event in Jacksonville, Florida. During the conversation, Collins noted her job as a reporter was to make Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “uncomfortable.”
Collins said: “My job is to ask the tough questions and make him uncomfortable, I guess.”
Later in the conversation, Collins noted how her website manager recommended that she “just run up to [DeSantis]” as he leaves the stage and “just yell questions at him.”
Collins questioned the effectiveness of the recommendation, saying, “He already doesn’t like the media.”
DeSantis rapid response director Christina Pushaw called out the “journactivist” on Twitter.
First Coast News did not immediately respond to Fox News’ requests for comment.
Many Twitter users sided with DeSantis, rebuking Collins for her comments:
During the event, as DeSantis took questions from reporters, Collins accused the governor of implementing policies that “emptied” school bookshelves in Duval County. His administration’s guidelines banning pornographic material from elementary school libraries evidently prompted her claim.
Collins alluded to a viral video posted last month that the governor quickly dismissed as part of a “fake narrative.”
DeSantis responded to Collins’ question by saying: “This is trying to create some narrative as if that — they hadn’t even put the books out yet to begin with, so there’s no need for all of that stuff. What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow, you know, we don’t want books.”
DeSantis has been a target of left-leaning media leaders since pushing back against CRT, transgender/gender-affirming/pornographic literature, and curriculum slated to be introduced in elementary schools.
Last week, “The View’s” Alyssa Farah Griffin criticized DeSantis, accusing him of “erasing” the study of black history in schools.
Farah Griffin later retracted the false claim.
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