Last week the Miami Herald published a story with a headline which garnered national attention, mainly from critics of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The headline read “Florida COVID update: 901 added deaths, largest single-day increase in pandemic history.”
I am sure a stern letter from @GovRonDeSantis to the @AP will make this all better. https://t.co/b9JSXhopBS
— Peter Schorsch (@PeterSchorschFL) August 26, 2021
The story was picked up by many predominantly left-leaning pundits and news sites to blast DeSantis for their claims of his poor effort in handling of the COVID pandemic.
It’s going GREAT for Governor Freedumb. https://t.co/kCtadm2Wcr
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 26, 2021
However, the headline indicates the 901 deaths occurred in a single day, but the article immediately says the data was collected over the course of weeks, and the 901 jump was when the data was tabulated.
“All but two of the newly reported deaths occurred after July 25, with about 78% of those people dying in the past two weeks, according to Herald calculations of data published by the CDC. The majority of deaths happened during Florida’s latest surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant.”
The article continues by explaining the new process for collecting and publishing the COVID-death data.
“The jump in the number of reported cases and deaths is due to the newest way deaths and cases are counted. The CDC implemented the change earlier this month, causing occasional one-day aberrations like the 901 additional deaths on Thursday and 726 more deaths reported Monday.”
DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told Fox News the framing of the headline was “dishonest.”
“It’s sensationalistic and dishonest to imply that 901 people died in a day when was actually a culmination of several weeks of data being reported at once,” Pushaw said. “By the same logic the Miami Herald used in its misleading headline, the liberal media could also say ‘New York reported 12,000 deaths in a single day,’ but of course they will not.”
Pushaw continued by saying the Miami Herald’s efforts to portray DeSantis’ leadership negatively is part of the reason why many do not trust the media.
“This is yet another example of why most Americans do not trust the mainstream media, and many Floridians feel that Miami Herald crosses the line from a newspaper to a Democratic PR firm in most of their reporting on Governor DeSantis,” Pushaw said.
The writer of the article, Devoun Cetoute, defended his article on Twitter saying it was “It’s alarming how many people interacted with this tweet” and the confusion over the headline was explained in the text of the article.
“It’s alarming how many people interacted with this tweet,” Cetoute said. “Reading the story and our transparency note would explain so much. CDC reports 901 more deaths to FL death total = single day increase. Death data is now by when people died not when FL reports it. All explained in story.”
It’s alarming how many people interacted with this tweet
Reading the story and our transparency note would explain so much
CDC reports 901 more deaths to FL death total = single day increase
Death data is now by when people died not when FL reports it.
All explained in story. https://t.co/Mo9Qc5iJiM
— Devoun Cetoute (@devoun_cetoute) August 27, 2021
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Miami Herald” by Marc Averette CC BY-SA 3.0.
