DeSantis’s office says he will boycott NBC, MSNBC over Andrea Mitchell question on Black history

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will boycott media appearances on NBC News and MSNBC shows, according to his press team, until one of the network’s star reporters apologizes for a question she posed about the governor’s education policies.

“There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor,” DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said in an email to the network that he posted on Twitter.

The “lie” that the DeSantis camp is protesting is a question Mitchell put to Vice President Harris last week, in which she asked: “What does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” 

Mitchell later said her questioning was “imprecise” but did not explicitly apologize. The Hill has reached out to NBC for further comment.

Griffin said NBC and its affiliates must “display a consistent track record of truthful reporting” before DeSantis, who has had an often acrimonious relationship with the mainstream media, agrees to future appearances.

Last year, DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida schools, as well as lessons about historical topics in ways that would make someone feel personally responsible for a past wrong based on their own race, sex or national origin.

Critics say the measure unfairly limits the teaching of subjects such as the Civil War and the Jim Crow era.

DeSantis garnered further outrage from Democrats and activists after his administration earlier this year rejected the new Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course launched by the College Board, criticizing the course as lacking “educational value.”

The DeSantis administration objected to topics including Black queer studies, intersectionality, the reparations movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought and the Black struggle in the 21st century.

The College Board later released changes to the AP course that aligned with many of DeSantis’s criticisms, but claimed that the changes were not due to the governor’s influence. DeSantis has yet to say if the state will accept the course as amended.

The changes have also sparked an intense backlash to the College Board itself from advocates and educators.

—Updated at 4:39 p.m.