Right-wing media has turned a pandemic into an ideological purity test

Without a reliable adversary, the right-wing TV industrial complex crumbles. People like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are not Beltway policy consultants or think-tank lanyard-wearers; instead, as Fox News hosts, they are among the country’s finest purveyors of paranoia, ideological victimhood, and politics as a vicious personal bloodsport. Coronavirus, then, has presented them with a challenge. They can’t exactly thrill their audiences by waging war on the virus itself, in the blandly non-ideological style of the #FuckCancer movement. And with President Trump at the mantle, nor can they take too much issue with the federal response, as you can imagine they might have done if Hillary Clinton were president. Instead, they have been awkwardly split between denialism — initially accusing the media of overhyping the virus’s spread and lethality — and attempting to “own the libs” by accusing Democrats of distracting Trump from being able to properly focus on a global health crisis by launching impeachment proceedings.

A New York Times analysis of right-wing media over the past few months shows how this dynamic played out. As recently as Feb. 25, Fox News host Laura Ingraham described the disease as something liberals were exploiting as a political tool, rather than a genuine threat. “A coronavirus,” she said on air. “That’s a new pathway for hitting President Trump.”