CNN is to fake news as Dairy Queen is to ice cream. If you want it, that’s the place to get it.

But this is a bit much even for CNN. 

A few local lefty Florida papers decided to manufacture a scandal involving a woman they claimed was a “data scientist” and the “architect” of Florida’s coronavirus program who was fired for resisting a cover-up on Florida’s coronavirus numbers.

Instead she was entering data and had been in trouble for cyberstalking.

DeSantis disparaged her, saying she’s “not even a data scientist … not involved in collating data, she lacks the expertise to do that. She is not an epidemiologist. She is not the chief architect of our web portal, that’s another false statement.”

And there’s her terrible history.

On June 13, 26-year-old University staff member Rebekah Jones was booked on one count of battery on a police officer, one count of remaining after forbidden and two counts of resisting arrest, Scott said. Scott said officers arrived at the Sea Grant building when Jones refused to leave at the request of LSU Human Resources. Scott said Jones initiated physical contact against two LSUPD officers while resisting arrest and officers were forced to subdue her.

Jones also has an extensive criminal history in Leon County, where she’s been arrested and charged with three felonies, including one for robbery, and a handful of misdemeanor cases including “sexual cyberstalking,” a case where she created a website and used it to sexually harass her ex-boyfriend. The website has been taken down, but images from the case exist in Leon County court records.

None of this stopped CNN, which had Jones on, on Friday, with quarantine violator Chris Cuomo.

Cuomo neglected to ask Jones about her past, threw her some gentle softballs, let her push conspiracy theories, and  then closed by saying, “There are a lot of big accusations coming your way, so thank you for taking this opportunity to help us understand what this is about and what it means for the people of Florida. Thank you.”

The Tampa Bay Times, which is owned by Poynter/Fact Check, is also continuing to push this.

Jones is currently blaming Dr. Shamarial Roberson, the African-American deputy director, who is not a DeSantis appointee. Why would Roberson want to engage in any kind of cover-up? Not a question that Poynter/CNN want to address.