The Washington Post has put together the perfect video to show how Fox News hosts have spread dangerous misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, in order to weaponize it, and how those very same people are suddenly singing a vastly different tune, right in synch with Donald Trump.
In the video, some of Trump’s favorite Fox hosts and “Medical A-Team” member Dr. Marc Siegel are all seen downplaying the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, just as Trump previously has. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Ainsley Earhardt, Jeanine Pirro and, of course, Trish Regan, each suggest that the virus is no more serious than the flu (despite experts saying otherwise) just days before completely reversing course and calling the contagion a serious health crisis.
In its accompanying article, The Post explains how the rhetoric “quickly shifted” on Fox once Trump started taking the pandemic seriously. And that may have been prompted by Tucker Carlson’s advice to do so. “Until then, Trump’s allies on Fox News were inclined to take the same stance that the president himself promoted for several weeks — that this coronavirus that had sickened and killed thousands of people in China was no worse a threat than the seasonal flu,” The Post notes.
And then there is Trish Regan. Her Fox Business Network show, Trish Regan Primetime, was yanked last week a few days after her unhinged monologue painted the coronavirus pandemic as Democratic fear mongering, desperately looking for another “impeachment scam.” The Post suggests that Fox’s response amounts to little more than window dressing (similar to Pirro's suspension and Carlson's sudden vacation last year after their comments embarrassed the network).
Regan’s on-air speculation at the start of last week that coronavirus was merely another impeachment gambit for Democrats drew widespread pushback. Clearly the mood was changing at Fox by the time the network announced late Friday that her discussion-and-commentary program on Fox Business would leave the air indefinitely, to be replaced by newscasts. Fox insiders said Regan is unlikely to return.
Fox insiders said that Regan’s removal from air showed that only some hosts — those with the biggest ratings — are protected at Fox News. “If you put Trish’s comments up against Laura [Ingraham’s], you can’t honestly tell me that Trish is off the air” because of her coronavirus commentary, said a former Fox News executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about his past employer.
But you don’t need to know any of that to see and hear Fox News’ top hosts reveal their dishonesty and falsehoods in their own words. It’s above, via The Washington Post.
Posted with permission from News Hounds.
