Read on Twitter
I was thinking a bit about how Fox News covered the Benghazi attack vs. how it has covered the pandemic. When I did a little digging into the numbers, it was just... depressing. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/decade-after-screaming-about-nonexistent-death-panels-fox-news-downplaying">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
This was Fox in the 20 months following the Benghazi attack. Detailed, right? https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/report-foxs-benghazi-obsession-numbers">https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hann...
This month, Fox has turned its focus on how onerous COVID-19 mitigation efforts are, all but ignoring the death toll https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-complained-about-coronavirus-health-measures-nearly-5-times-often-it-reported">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/...
A week of Fox programming in September 2020 looks like this:
And as much as their narrative is that either we just don& #39;t know if lockdowns work or offering a complete dismissal of the strategy, evidence suggests otherwise, saving millions of lives globally https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/09/872441984/modelers-suggest-pandemic-lockdowns-saved-millions-from-dying-of-covid-19">https://www.npr.org/sections/...
Fox can pretend to care about American deaths from diseases... but only if it suits them politically.
In 2014, they rode Ebola scaremongering all the way to a Senate majority (even though the Obama administration& #39;s Ebola response was solid). https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/after-riding-ebola-fears-victory-2014-right-wing-media-are-playing-politics">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
In 2014, they rode Ebola scaremongering all the way to a Senate majority (even though the Obama administration& #39;s Ebola response was solid). https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/after-riding-ebola-fears-victory-2014-right-wing-media-are-playing-politics">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
Not sure if everyone remembers, but right-wing media& #39;s Ebola coverage was absolutely bonkers, full of conspiracy theories that Obama was trying to intentionally infect Americans and stuff. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/after-riding-ebola-fears-victory-2014-right-wing-media-are-playing-politics">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
Once the 2014 election was over, though, conservative commentators could do a 180 on what they& #39;d been saying just weeks earlier, like this example about funding:
And each criticism they tried to hit Obama with in 2014 for Ebola, every worst-case-scenario they outlined, has come true under Trump. But naturally, they find themselves playing defense for him. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/after-riding-ebola-fears-victory-2014-right-wing-media-are-playing-politics">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
And that& #39;s really what gets me about people who casually say things like "Well, you& #39;ve got Fox on the right and MSNBC on the left," as though that in any way begins to explain the power and influence Fox has as a full-fledged propaganda network.
Are MSNBC& #39;s opinion hosts left-of-center? Sure. Absolutely. I wouldn& #39;t say that any of them are as far left as people like Hannity or Ingraham are far right, but Maddow, Hayes, etc. are certainly left-of-center.
But they don& #39;t have the same amount of pull with Democratic politicians as Fox has with Republicans. Fox knows it can destroy the political careers of Republicans who don& #39;t show an appropriate level of fealty.
And also unlike Fox and the collection of right-wing media outlets like Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, Daily Caller, etc., there& #39;s no tight-knit network of smaller media outlets on the left to create the type of powerful, self-sustaining feedback loop that Republicans have.
Sometimes Fox gets its talking points from the president.
Sometimes the president gets his talking points from Fox.
In either case, they& #39;re a powerful entity that people can ignore at their own peril. And that& #39;s part of the reason why it& #39;s just... devastating that we ended up
Sometimes the president gets his talking points from Fox.
In either case, they& #39;re a powerful entity that people can ignore at their own peril. And that& #39;s part of the reason why it& #39;s just... devastating that we ended up
here. 200,000 deaths. It didn& #39;t have to happen.
Fox could have influenced the president to take this more seriously, and it could have influenced other media outlets to treat this as a real threat instead of downplaying it as a political ploy. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/decade-after-screaming-about-nonexistent-death-panels-fox-news-downplaying">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
Fox could have influenced the president to take this more seriously, and it could have influenced other media outlets to treat this as a real threat instead of downplaying it as a political ploy. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/decade-after-screaming-about-nonexistent-death-panels-fox-news-downplaying">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavir...
How much outright contempt does a news channel have for its audience to spend time working from home because of COVID-19 fears all the while telling viewers that everything is fine and should just go back to normal?
