DeSantis Suggests Florida Should Make it Easier for People to Sue the Media

Florida governor Ron DeSantis took his media-bashing to a new level during a roundtable discussion Tuesday, as he floated the idea of legislation that could make it easier for people to sue news organizations for defamation. “They come after me—and they do do a lot of slander—but I fight back. I have a platform to fight back … I got thick skin,” said DeSantis. “But you have some of these other folks who are just run-of-the-mill citizens, their only possible way of recourse would be to be able to bring an action [in court].” DeSantis called on Florida legislators to “protect” Floridians without detailing any specific legislation, Politico reports. “In Florida, we want to stand up for the little guy against these massive media conglomerates,” DeSantis said. 

“There needs to be an ability for people to defend themselves not through government regulation or restriction, but through being able to seek private right of action,” DeSantis added.

The Republican governor, seated at a cable-news style desk, appeared almost like a comic book villain with a screen behind him displaying the word “TRUTH” layered over a spinning globe. Others on the panel included lawyers who litigate libel cases, conservative activists, and libertarian journalists, who along with DeSantis “implied that private citizens are often the victims of inaccurate reporting,” the Tampa Bay Times reported. Despite DeSantis’ suggestion that everyday citizens are unable to successfully sue news organizations for publishing false information, “the legal bar is lower for private citizens than public officials,” according to the Times. 

Still, DeSantis, who is expected to run for president in 2024, took the opportunity to reiterate his opposition to anonymous sources—an issue that one of his top staffers reportedly targeted in a draft bill last year. Per the the Orlando Sentinel, the draft bill, which was never filed in the 2022 legislative session’s agenda, would have limited the definition of “public figure,” and “presumed statements from anonymous sources to be false in defamation cases,” among other provisions.

DeSantis’ attacks on the media Tuesday are part of a broader anti-media narrative that would likely feature prominently should he pursue a White House bid. In his reelection bid last year, DeSantis ratcheted up Donald Trump’s playbook by not only assailing the press—claiming, at one point, that the “national regime media” wanted Hurricane Ian to hit Tampa—but ignoring nonpartisan ones altogether, as the New York Times’ Michael Grynbaum wrote last month. The strategy was successful in the midterms, but it remains to be seen whether it can work on a national level.