While New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was busy accepting his Emmy award and writing a “pompous, self-congratulatory” book, he was also lapping up constant praise from his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. The Empire State, however, was far from booming, Grace Curley reminds us in Spectator.US.

As Ms. Curley observes, CNN’s 60 Minutes didn’t seem to take much issue with Gov. Cuomo’s disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it chose to air a mendacious report on Governor Ron DeSantis.

In an interview with Florida’s governor, the producers at 60 Minutes spliced out Gov. DeSantis’s explanation and, in an incredibly sloppy execution, “seamed together an entirely new and misleading clip.” 60 Minutes seemed hell-bent on making the Florida governor the “second most evil man in America.”

The latest hit job, by 60 Minutes’s Sharyn Alfonsi, was particularly egregious because of CBS’s incredibly sloppy execution.

In fact, the ‘fake but accurate’ propaganda was so deceptive that another Democrat, Palm Beach County mayor Dave Kerner, came to DeSantis’s defense.

From Palm Beach County Mayor Kerne: “Intentionally False” (Democrat)

“The reporting was not just based on bad information — it was intentionally false…I know this because I offered to provide my insight into Palm Beach County’s vaccination efforts and 60 Minutes declined.’

The program that boasts alumni like Dan Rather and Katie Couric is running with bad intel, caustically writes Ms. Curley.

CBS is defending 60 Minutes over this blatantly false attack.

Governor DeSantis isn’t wasting time waiting for CBS’s mea culpa. Last Wednesday, DeSantis told reporters:

“So the whole thing is a big lie. CBS certainly knew it was a big lie, but that was their goal, just simply to try to smear Florida, smear me.”

Keeping Our Federalist System Alive

Florida’s governor is a leading exemplar of how our federalist system works.

First inclinations at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 had a uniform response in our 50 states. In America, however, with her “large and small cities sprawling suburbs, small towns, extremely rural areas and everything in between, that made little sense,” Karol Markowicz reminds readers in Spectator.US.

America quickly corrected: Governors took control of COVID-19 policies for each respective state.

The Genius of Federalism

People were free to vote with their feet, as Ms. Markowicz observes. Anyone believing lockdowns and double-masking would beat the virus was free to go to states reflecting those values. And anyone looking for a freer path could make a temporary or permanent choice.

The results of that have been astonishing. States that had tight lockdowns, such as New York, New Jersey and Michigan, did not see better outcomes than states (that) loosened their lockdowns early on.

Florida, in particular, has stood out as evidence that lockdowns simply didn’t produce better results. Florida opened their beaches in the spring and Gov. DeSantis moved to lift all restrictions in September.

Yet it was closed New York that experienced the worst winter spikes. It’s something we would have never discovered if we followed one prescription for our vast country.