“The Young Turks” executive producer Ana Kasparian said she made a mistake by covering disgraced COVID-19 conspiracy theorist Rebekah Jones falsely accusing Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of having her son arrested.
Jones accused DeSantis of having her 13-year-old son arrested over a lawsuit she filed against the Florida Department of Health over a debunked claim that the Florida governor covered up the number of COVID-19 cases in the state. She further accused the DeSantis administration of firing her over her refusal to falsify the case numbers.
Authorities arrested Jones’ son due to several posts allegedly threatening a school shooting, according to Check Your Fact. He was turned into the sheriff’s office and scheduled to be arraigned in May, before being released under electronic monitoring and ordered not to contact anyone at the school.
Kasparian said Wednesday that she falsely echoed Jones’ false accusations due to her disliking DeSantis.
“I want to correct all of those errors that we had previously reported,” Kasparian said. “And I want to be clear that out of everyone who works on the main show, the only person who should be held responsible for that is me. I’m the executive producer of the show and I screwed up royally, and part of the reason why I screwed up is because I had all these biases, of course, against Ron DeSantis. And I don’t really feel bad about that because I think Ron DeSantis has done some pretty terrible things in the state of Florida, but it becomes a problem when that bias blinds you to what the facts of various stories happen to be.”
“I should have done my due diligence, I failed to do so, and by failing to do so, I feel like I misled the audience into thinking that Rebekah Jones is some sort of hero,” she continued. (RELATED: Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Left Wing Media Loved Comes Crashing Down)
She added that those reporting news second-hand are “relying on the mainstream media” and said its failure to do its own due diligence will lead others to cover false information.
“Fact of the matter is, I want to make sure that I correct my errors, I get you guys accurate information and I avoid helping someone who might be a grifter from fundraising off of our own audience members,” she concluded.
Conservatives praised Kasparian for her “integrity” in correcting the error.
“Thank you,” DeSantis’ campaign rapid response director and former press secretary Christina Pushaw said. “Never thought TYT would have more journalistic integrity than @MiamiHerald, @MarbinMiller @Blaskey_S @NickNehamas but here you go.”
Thank you. Never thought TYT would have more journalistic integrity than @MiamiHerald @MarbinMiller @Blaskey_S @NickNehamas but here you go. https://t.co/YOxnV9LQ1a
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) April 13, 2023
“Good on @AnaKasparian for doing this and admitting an error, which is never easy but takes integrity,” NewsNation solutions reporter Zaid Jilani said.
Good on @AnaKasparian for doing this and admitting an error, which is never easy but takes integrity. https://t.co/78K8dm2NUZ
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) April 13, 2023
Good for her, but the bigger issue is that much of the mainstream press repeatedly did the same exact thing on these same stories. They made a troubled pathological liar and obvious grifter into a hero based purely on their hatred for DeSantis. https://t.co/RiMNl1FlHM
— AG (@AGHamilton29) April 13, 2023
I have watched this twice and I still can’t believe it’s real. Honest admissions, acceptance of accountability, and genuine apologizing … all simply unheard of these days. https://t.co/AkTLEexsww
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) April 13, 2023
Gotta give props on acknowledging her negligence and owning up to it to her audience. Hope to see more of this. Some will still maintain Ana hasnt changed at all or that those changes aren’t sincere. I disagree. Not saying “based & red pilled” but better directionally than before https://t.co/bscvZuU1aH
— Nuance Bro (@NuanceBro) April 13, 2023
An arrest report showed that an investigation into Jones’ son began in March after a peer showed another middle school student a screenshot from an “unknown Instagram account that was talking about a possible school shooting at Holley Navarre Middle School that would take place this week, possibly Thursday.” The messages allegedly sent by Jones’ son over Snapchat were investigated by deputies.
Some of the messages allegedly read, “I want to shoot up the school,” and “Okay so it’s been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new on my new antidepressants and they aren’t working but they’re suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school,” according to the report.
Kasparian previously admitted she falsely reported information about Kyle Rittenhouse, the then-17-year-old who was acquitted after shooting three people at a Black Lives Matter riot in August 2020. She said she wrongfully told her audience that Rittenhouse chased Joseph Rosenbaum, who was fatally shot by Rittenhouse, though he chased the teen prior to the shooting.