PANTS ON FIRE: ABC Ties Emmett Till Lynching to DeSantis, FL’s History Standards

July 25th, 2023 11:32 AM

ABC chief White House correspondent and Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce leveled an scurrilous insinuation and lie during Tuesday’s Good Morning America as, not only did she mention Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) Florida Board of Education in the same breath as the horrific lynching of Emmett Till, but she suggested President Biden declaring three Till sites a national monument would ensure accurate teachings of black history (unlike in the Sunshine State).

 

 

The segment started off innocently with co-host Robin Roberts declaring before she tossed to Bruce: “We’re going to go now to President Biden set to sign a proclamation this afternoon that will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley.” 

And after Bruce’s hitjob of a report, Roberts didn’t engage and kept the focus on the Tills, saying his mother was “so courageous...to have an open casket” at his funeral.

Bruce opened by noting the declaration’s coming “on what would have been his 82nd birthday,” adding:

The national monument established today will consist of three protected sites, the river bed in Mississippi where his unrecognizable body was pulled from the water, the courthouse there where an all-white jury acquitted his killers, and a historically black church in Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, heroically insisted on that open casket, so that the world could see his battered body and what racism and hate had done to her son.

After pointing out Biden “is roughly the same age that Till would have been,” Bruce made the insanely partisan turn by insisting this announcement “comes as we are seeing this controversial and very polarizing debate in this country over the teaching of black history.”

“That move by the Florida Board of Education to teach some slaves may have benefitted from the skills they developed is sparking a firestorm,” Bruce added.

She concluded with more spin from her friends in the White House: “But, Robin, this White House says monuments like this to Till will help teach the complete story of our nation's history[.]”

First, the phrase “it comes as” was a classic trope used to tie two things together, whether or not they’re actually related. Second, it’s only “controversial and very polarizing” because some academics and much of the media had outsourced their history education to a blatant fraud

Next, Bruce again brought up the falsehood that Florida’s new black history curriculum was based on promoting slavery as having had plenty of positives. In reality, that’s anything but the case over the course of 191 items in the new standards.

National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke actually published (and read!) them, but Bruce’s life must be too complicated to brush up on the facts when she can take whatever spin the White House press office and Vice President Kamala Harris want out there.

And finally, the linkage was no accident given the liberal media’s purposeful attempt to bury DeSantis and smear Florida.

CBS Mornings also covered Till with a much longer segment (7:24 to ABC’s 1:32), but they didn’t have this problem and instead stuck to the importance of honoring Till and his murder’s impact on the country.

Bruce’s odious insinuation tying Florida to Till was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Ancestry, Carmax, Honda, and Neutrogena. Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.

To see the relevant transcript from July 25, click “expand.”

ABC’s Good Morning America
July 25, 2023
8:03 a.m. Eastern

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: GMA Morning Rundown; President Biden to Announce Emmett Till National Monument]

ROBIN ROBERTS: We’re going to go now to President Biden set to sign a proclamation this afternoon that will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley. Our chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, has those details for us. Good morning, Mary.

MARY BRUCE: Good morning, Robin. Well, on what would have been his 82nd birthday, President Biden today establishing a national monument to honor Emmett Till, whose brutal murder helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. Till was just 14 year sold visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnaped, tortured, and killed after a white woman accused him of whistling at her. The national monument established today will consist of three protected sites, the river bed in Mississippi where his unrecognizable body was pulled from the water, the courthouse there where an all-white jury acquitted his killers, and a historically black church in Chicago where his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, heroically insisted on that open casket, so that the world could see his battered body and what racism and hate had done to her son. She, too, will be honored here today. Now, the President’s announcement — the President, who is roughly the same age that Till would have been — it comes as we are seeing this controversial and very polarizing debate in this country over the teaching of black history. That move by the Florida Board of Education to teach some slaves may have benefitted from the skills they developed is sparking a firestorm. But, Robin, this White House says monuments like this to Till will help teach the complete story of our nation's history, Robin?

ROBERTS: Alright, Mary, thank you very much. And, as she said, it was so courageous of his mom to have an open casket —

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Certainly was.

ROBERTS: — as she did.