Tag: Fox News

Revisiting one of many debunked efforts to minimize the scale of the coronavirus pandemic

Washington Post logoFox News host Laura Ingraham has been a frequent and energetic perpetrator of misinformation over the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Her repeated advocacy of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus included her personally appealing to President Trump on its behalf and almost certainly helped solidify the president’s belief that the risky medication might serve as an effective prophylactic treatment. Her efforts to downplay the scale of the pandemic have included ridiculous insinuations of a conspiracy theory to inflate the number of deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

And then there was this, from earlier this month.

Laura Ingraham

✔@IngrahamAngle

What’s the explanation here? “New CDC Coronavirus Data Cuts American Death Toll Nearly In HALF” https://trendingpolitics.com/breaking-new-cdc-coronavirus-data-cuts-american-death-toll-nearly-in-half/#.Xq9aF0Mf04A.twitter …

BREAKING: New CDC Coronavirus Data Cuts American Death Toll Nearly In HALF

[EDIT: There are reports that the CDC figure is simply ‘delayed’. Unlike CNN, we hold ourselves accountable. Click here to see the counter-reporting on this sto…

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At this point, you can see the “edit” in the description of the linked article, an amendment added after the fact to acknowledge, to as small a degree as possible, that the premise of the article was entirely wrong. That was obvious in the moment, as The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake made clear. Continue reading.

Backing Fox News’ Irresponsible Coverage Are Key Advertisers

Leading Fox News advertisers are sponsoring the network’s politically motivated pivot away from its coverage of the coronavirus pandemic — which has consistently spread misinformation during the public health crisis — to instead promoting the bogus “Obamagate” conspiracy theory and culture war stories of small business owners and protesters defying stay-at-home orders.From April 13 to May 11, Fox News’ coverage of the coronavirus dropped more than 20%. Here’s a list of recent advertisers on the network who should reconsider advertising on the network.

View the post here.

Tucker Carlson’s Dangerous Disinformation About Social Distancing

After state and local governments implemented social distancing measures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Tucker Carlson has used his prime-time Fox News show to falsely claim that these measures failed to slow the spread of the virus. In the broader context of Fox News’ pattern of airing misinformation about the coronavirus, Carlson’s campaign to discredit social distancing policies is particularly glaring and dangerous.

  • Experts agree social distancing slows the spread and saves lives. Experts agree social distancing slows the spread and saves lives. Experts have widely agreed with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that social distancing policies are the most effective way to intervene in the spread of the virus early enough to dramatically reduce the number of infections and deaths.
  • Epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch, the head of Harvard’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, urged in early March that social distancing protocols be implemented faster. He stated that “the goal is to minimize the number of contacts between people” so as to slow the spread of the virus. By early April, multiple studies from both a right- and left-leaning perspective had been released concluding that social distancing policies will likely have to continue in varied forms for at least a year, if not longer. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on April 12 that the United States could have saved lives if social distancing guidelines were enforced earlier. And White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx cautioned Americans on April 26 that social distancing would be required until a “breakthrough” in testing occurred. She estimated these policies would need to continue into the summer. Despite the fact that public health experts widely agree on the effectiveness of social distancing measures, Carlson has used his Fox show to undermine them.

How Tucker Carlson is crafting a dangerous and preposterous conspiracy theory to prop up Trump

AlterNet logoDuring the months when Donald Trump thought he could somehow defeat the novel coronavirus by lying, minimizing it and calling concerns about the coming pandemic a “hoax,” most Fox News hosts were right there with him.  The one major exception, however, was popular prime time host Tucker Carlson. While Sean Hannity kept calling the coronavirus crisis a “hoax” and Laura Ingraham described people concerned about it as “panic pushers,” Carlson actually criticized Trump and his Fox colleagues for “minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” arguing that the virus was “a major event” that “will affect your life.” The fact Trump made a reluctant pivot and began to admit that the coronavirus was a real threat — even though he’s still trying to cover up the spread of the disease — is likely due to Carlson’s pressure.

In fact, the difference between Carlson’s approach and that of his fellow Fox News hosts, especially Hannity, was so pronounced that it likely altered the course of the disease. A new study shows that communities that favored Hannity’s show over Carlson’s show had more cases of COVID-19 and more deaths. The reason is simple: Because Hannity downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, his viewers were less likely to follow stay-at-home recommendations and therefore more likely spread the disease.

Don’t get too soft on Tucker, however. He wasn’t motivated by a real concern about the safety of his audience, much less about Americans at large. He simply took a more opportunistic attitude, viewing the inevitable panic and instability that would result from the pandemic as a chance to push his white nationalist views by blaming immigrants. He encouraged people to embrace racist frames that implied people of color were dirtier than white people, and encouraged Trump to use the pandemic as an excuse to shut down immigration. Trump has taken that advice, although his ban — which only affects people seeking green cards, not those seeking temporary work visas — has already been criticized by Carlson, who thinks it doesn’t go far enough. Continue reading.

Fox Cuts Pay to Cope With Health Crisis Its Own Hosts Downplayed

Fox Corp. suspended the salaries of top executives, including Chairman Rupert Murdoch, as it copes with a coronavirus crisis that its own news commentators were criticized for downplaying.

Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s eldest son, and three other corporate officers will have their salaries eliminated through September, the company said on Wednesday, saying it was navigating “an unprecedented health crisis.” Other executives at Fox, including Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, will have their pay cut in half. About 700 employees in all will see some salary reductions.

Fox joins other media giants in making cutbacks during the pandemic. But it’s unique in being the nation’s top cable-news source for information on the virus. The network has been criticized for downplaying the severity of the outbreak, particularly early on. Continue reading.

Study finds people who watched Sean Hannity were more likely to die from COVID-19

AlterNet logoA new study from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics found that “greater viewership of ‘Hannity’ relative to ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic.”

Fox News host Sean Hannity has been heavily criticized for echoing President Donald Trump’s initial attempts to downplay the threat posed by the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, his colleague at the right-leaning network who has framed the issue in more nationalistic terms, has been credited with convincing the president to take the pandemic seriously.

“Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February,” the researchers wrote in the working paper. Continue reading.

How Fox News Embraced And Boosted Coronavirus Protests

  • While state governors have attempted to slow the coronavirus outbreak through a number of stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders, right-wing activists have organized a series of protests across the country calling for the reopening of businesses and the end of social distancing orders. Fox News has given extensive coverage to these protests — promoting the events, praising and encouraging the protesters, as well as hosting rally organizers
    — despite warnings from medical experts that opening up the country too soon could backfire, setting everyone back in the fight against coronavirus.
  • In one week, from April 13 through 19, Fox News devoted 69 segments to the story, spending 4 hours and 23 minutes covering the protests.
  • Fox & Friend First aired 9 segments about the protests, followed by America’s Newsroom with 8 segments. Rounding out the shows with the most segments were Your World with Neil Cavuto and America’s News Headquarters with 6 segments, and Fox News @ Night and Fox & Friends with 5 segments each. Continue reading.

Jim Jordan tells Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro he wants Congress to investigate governors for coronavirus shutdown orders

AlterNet logoAnger at COVID-19 shutdown orders boiled over on Fox News on Saturday night.

As ABC, CBS and NBC aired the Global Citizen “One World: Together At Home” concert to raise money for the World Health Organization’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic, Fox chose to air “Justice” with former Judge Jeanine Pirro.

The show began with an angry rant from the host about a “Wuhan virus” for which China must be punished. Continue reading.

Chris Cuomo Slams Ingraham, Fox News Over Coronavirus Coverage: ‘Never Ends For State TV’

Chris Cuomo Slams Ingraham, Fox News Over Coronavirus Coverage: ‘Never Ends For State TV’

CNN’s Chris Cuomo joined the backlash against Fox News’ coverage of the coronavirus pandemic on Friday as he fired back at a tweet from the rival network’s prime-time personality Laura Ingraham.

“It never ends for state tv,” Cuomo responded to a post from Ingraham that attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Cuomo slammed the conservative network over its “constant division” and for weeks downplaying the threat posed by the coronavirus, which has now killed more than 37,000 people nationwide. Continue reading.

Anthony Fauci shuts down Laura Ingraham when she complains we didn’t have lockdowns over AIDS

AlterNet logoOn Fox News Thursday, Laura Ingraham tried to make a false comparison between the coronavirus pandemic and AIDS — and Dr. Anthony Fauci promptly corrected her.

“We don’t have a vaccine for SARS, I mean, they got close in mice,” said Ingraham. “We don’t have a vaccine for HIV. And life did go on, right? So the idea that we’re definitely going to have a vaccine — we didn’t really approach much else in the same way, as we’re pegging going back to normal with a vaccine, did we?”

“Well, no, but Laura, this is different,” said Fauci, a key voice on President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force. “HIV/AIDS is entirely different. We don’t have a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, but we have spectacularly effective treatment. People who invariably would have died years ago, right now are leading essentially normal lives.” Continue reading.