Despite the fact that we have many states engaging in a dangerous experiment with their residents' lives, and opening things up before it's safe to do so, these AstroTurf promoted protests against the stay-at-home orders are continuing across the country, and are still being heavily promoted by Fox.
As Media Matters has documented, just during the time period "from April 13 through 20, Fox News devoted 91 segments to the story, spending 6 hours covering the protests." "Fox personalities went out of their way to gush over the protests and praise those participating, even overlooking obvious issues like the lack of social distancing."
Fox was still promoting the rallies this Sunday (with no mention of who is funding them, of course), and continued to ignore the lack of social distancing from the COVIDiots participating in them, with Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth promising more to come in the weeks ahead:
So we know there are a lot more than just this: Fort Myers, Florida, Sarasota, Columbus, Ohio, El Paso, Texas, Frisco and Austin, Texas, Montgomery, Alabama, Elko, Nevada, Reno, Nevada, Springfield, Illinois, Jackson, Mississippi.
I know a friend of mine in New Jersey, he sent a video of a boat parade near Sea Bright, New Jersey, a fisherman and others want to get back to work. People are also adamant that this health crisis needs to be moved past. Let us make that choice.
And we're going to continue to cover these, because it is an important part of the American fabric, people itching to be out there.
CHAFFETZ: Yeah, no. I mean, clearly we're going to... later on in the show, we've got some have stories about some towns, turning off water, doing silly things like that. You still have constitutional rights even if there is it a virus.
Despite Hegseth's insistence that American's are "itching to get out there," polls say otherwise, as was reported by Business Insider this week: In an era of political polarization, Americans are united behind coronavirus stay-at-home orders, polling shows:
But the coronavirus pandemic is breeding rare levels of solidarity among Americans, at least when it comes to social distancing and restrictions on society. In short, the country appears willing to listen to public health experts and do what it takes to defeat this pandemic, even if it means hurting the economy in the process.
Across the board, recent polling shows that most Americans — including majorities of US voters from both major parties — are united in their willingness to stay home to prevent the spread of the deadly virus:
- In a Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday, the vast majority of participants (76%) said Americans should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus even if it means continued damage to the economy. Only 14% said Americans should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus.
- The poll also showed strong support for continued social distancing, even if it translates into ongoing damage to the economy, the across party lines: 88% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans.
- 63% of Americans are worried about lifting coronavirus restrictions too fast and exacerbating the outbreak, vastly outnumbering those who are more worried (37%) about lifting restrictions too slowly and worsening the economy, according to a CBS News poll released Thursday.
- The poll also found strong majorities of both Democrats (85%) and Republicans (77%) think stay-at-home orders have been effective in limiting the spread of the virus.
- 86% of Americans said they were trying to stay home as much as possible, the latest HuffPost/YouGov survey found.
- Meanwhile, the poll also found 87% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans said that state stay-at-home orders remain the right decision, while 91% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans said they're trying to stay at home as much as possible.
- 71% of Americans are more worried about lifting coronavirus restrictions too quickly, as opposed to too slowly (29%), according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on Monday.
- The poll also found a majority of Democrats (87) and most Republicans (51%) agree that the US should only reopen once public-health officials are fully able to test and trace new cases and outbreaks.
- A new AP-NORC poll released on Wednesday found about eight-in-10 Americans support measures such as requiring Americans to stay in their homes and limiting gatherings to 10 people or fewer. And 61% said the restrictions put in place in their area are about right.
- 91% of Democrats said they favor requiring Americans to say in their homes except for essential errands, according to the poll, alongside 70% of Republicans.
- A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Tuesday found a bipartisan majority of Americans said people should stay at home "until the doctors and public health officials say it is safe." This included 88% of Democrats, 55% of Republicans, and roughly 70% of independents.
These polls suggest that the sentiments of Americans protesting against coronavirus restrictions in various cities and regions are not widely shared.
The protesters' sentiments are not widely shared, but you'd never know that from watching Trump-TV. Fox still seems bound and determined to kill off as many of their viewers as possible. How many of them have to die before they figure out maybe that's not the best business model remains to be seen.
