Axios Fires Reporter after He Called DeSantis Press Release ‘Propaganda’

An Axios reporter has been fired after he called a press release from Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s Education Department “propaganda.”

The press release gave an update on a roundtable that DeSantis hosted this week discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) and “the impact that these concepts have had on Florida higher education institutions and the students that attend them.”

In response, Ben Montgomery, the Tampa Bay reporter at Axios, emailed the Florida Department of Education press office saying: “This is propaganda, not a press release.”

The email was made public on Twitter by Alex Lanfranconi, the department’s director of communications.

Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary for DeSantis, tweeted in response: “Is this journalism?”

DeSantis, who is expected to throw his hat in the ring for the GOP presidential primary, has spent a lot of political capital on developments in Florida schools, culminating in the Parental Rights in Education Act, a 2022 law that prohibits the discussion and instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in early elementary grades.

Despite the law’s official name, it has been widely dubbed in the media the “don’t say gay” law. While many on the right have praised the effort, some have expressed concerns about the scope of government intervention.

“In Florida, we are not going to back down to the woke mob, and we will expose the scams they are trying to push onto students across the country,” said DeSantis, as quoted in the Education Department’s press release. “Florida students will receive an education, not a political indoctrination.”

The press release also highlighted Florida’s push to “prohibit state colleges and universities from funding DEI programs or activities and prohibit general education courses that distort historical events or that use instruction from CRT and establish new standards and adoption procedures for these courses.”

The attempt to regulate classroom instruction at the university level has been particularly controversial, drawing criticism from free-speech and academic-freedom advocates.

Montgomery put the best face on his firing, tweeting: “I made crepes this morning for the first time in years.”

The Huffington Post confirmed that Axios had indeed parted with Montgomery.

Before joining Axios, Montgomery worked for the Tampa Bay Times.