Coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic
Fox News' coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic has been criticized due to pundits and guests having initially dismissed the severity of the disease's transmission in the United States (following the lead of the Trump administration), accused critics of exaggerating its impact to attack President Trump, and perpetuating COVID-19 misinformation about how to mitigate or treat the virus.[168][169][170][171][172]
Tucker Carlson promoted the COVID-19 lab leak theory[173] and in a February 24 commentary argued that "wokeness" and diversity had eased its spread. At the same time, Carlson did become more critical of the Trump administration's response on occasion, opining on March 9 that "people you trust—people you probably voted for—have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem."[170] Media Matters for America criticized Carlson in particular, as well as other Fox News personalities, for using Sinophobic language such as "Chinese coronavirus", "Wuhan virus", "kung flu", or variations thereof to refer to COVID-19 on-air.[174]
Sean Hannity argued on his March 9 program that Democrats and the news media were trying to use COVID-19 to "bludgeon Trump".[175][176] On March 5, Trump made an appearance on the program by phone, where he claimed that a projected mortality rate of 3.4% announced earlier that day by the World Health Organization was a "false number" and predicted that it would actually be under 1%.[177][178] On his March 10 episode (one day before the WHO declared a pandemic), Hannity argued that the seasonal flu was still making a larger "impact" than COVID-19 (with 34 million cases against roughly 1,200 at the time), only the elderly and immunocompromised were at the greatest risk, and argued that there was not an equivalent "widespread hysteria" over routine violent crimes in Chicago.[179]
Also on March 10, Laura Ingraham referred to "panic pushers" in the media, suggesting that "the facts are actually pretty reassuring, but you'd never know it watching all this stuff", and implicated that only those at high risk needed to practice social distancing (contrasting recommendations by officials that all people should practice social distancing).[169][180] Two days later, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt suggested that it was the "safest time to fly" since "[the] terminals are pretty much dead",[181] and the program aired an interview with Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., where he claimed that the "overreaction" to COVID-19 was "their next attempt to get Trump" and that COVID-19 was a biological weapon developed by China or North Korea to attack the United States.[182][169][170]
Concurrent with Trump's own changes in tone and attitude surrounding the pandemic, some Fox News pundits began to openly acknowledge its severity on-air, including Hannity, Ingraham, and Earhardt.[170][180][183] Vanity Fair observed this shift in tone as an inversion of the "feedback loop" that had emerged between Trump and Fox News (resulting from Trump's discussion of stories seen on the network, particularly during Fox & Friends, on social media),[184] but noted that the network's personalities were more often "showering praise on the president rather than offering their own take on things", and that Ingraham had accused other media outlets of using the pandemic to celebrate "Trump's downfall".[185]
On March 24, after Trump began to endorse off-label use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 symptoms based on anecdotal evidence, Hannity and Ingraham similarly promoted the drug during their respective programs.[186] During a Coronavirus Task Force briefing on April 13, 2020, Trump screened a montage of footage taken directly from an episode of Hannity, of news anchors and guests downplaying the early threat of COVID-19, as part of a video presentation that glorified his initial response to the pandemic.[187][188][189][190]
Fox News faced criticism for featuring celebrity doctors such as Phil McGraw and Mehmet Oz as guests, with both of them downplaying the impact that a premature lifting of mitigation measures and "reopening" of the country (as was being proposed by Trump) would have.[191][192] Fox News also faced backlash for providing undue praise of protests against stay-at-home orders in multiple states (such as Lansing, Michigan's "Operation Gridlock"), including interviews with participants and organizers, and pundits praising the event and making comments critical of Governor Gretchen Whitmer (such as Carlson calling her actions "mindless and authoritarian", and Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade predicting a larger movement against "ridiculous" stay-at-home orders).[193][194] Trump made posts on Twitter in support of the protests on April 17, reading "LIBERATE MICHIGAN", "LIBERATE VIRGINIA" and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA" respectively; the timing of the tweets corresponded with a segment on America's Newsroom that had covered them.[195]
Fox News pundits showed inconsistent views towards the wearing of face masks to lessen spread of infected droplets by the wearer. Hannity and Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy have supported the practice,[197][198] as did Carlson and Ingraham in late-March; on his March 30 episode, Carlson stated that "Of course masks work. Everyone knows that. Dozens of research papers have proved it", and cited that they were "key" to controlling the pandemic in East Asia, and criticized the government's early guidance against using them for protection of the wearer. However, as masks became a partisan political issue over the months that followed, Carlson and Ingraham began to perpetuate opposition towards the practice, on a later episode, Carlson claimed that masking and social distancing had no basis in science.[199][200][201] On April 26, 2021, Carlson claimed that making children wear masks was child abuse, and that people who spot parents making their children wear masks should call police and child protective services.[202]
Despite having made some efforts to promote the vaccination program, via public service announcements, promotion of the federal Vaccines.gov website, and selected hosts making statements in support of vaccination,[203][204] Media Matters for America found that from June 28 to August 8, at least 60% of Fox News segments discussing COVID-19 vaccines "included claims undermining or downplaying [them]", such as political arguments, disputes and conspiracy theories regarding their safety, and arguments that they were a "cynical political ploy by Democrats". The amount of such content was shown to have intensified during the week of July 26, while Tucker Carlson, Brian Kilmeade, and frequent guest Marty Makary were identified as having discussed such content most often during the period.[205] Fox News implemented a vaccine passport system in July 2021 despite its hosts criticizing vaccine passports,[206][207] and more than 90% of Fox Corporation's full-time employees had been fully vaccinated by September 2021.[208]
Other Fox News Media properties have also faced criticism and controversies over their coverage of the pandemic. In March 2020, Fox Business anchor Trish Regan left the network amid criticism of a March 7 segment on her program, where she accused Democrats of politicizing the pandemic so they could blame Donald Trump for it, and seek a second impeachment.[209][210] One month later, Fox Nation severed its ties with conservative vloggers Diamond and Silk after they repeatedly promoted various COVID-19 conspiracy theories.[211][212] On December 23, 2020, Fox Business program Mornings with Maria was duped by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, airing an interview with an activist posing as Smithfield Foods' CEO Dennis Organ to discuss its response to the pandemic. He suggested that "the conditions inside of our farms can sometimes be petri dishes for new diseases", and that the meat packing industry could "effectively [bring] on the next pandemic." The program's anchor Maria Bartiromo issued an apology at the end of the show, saying that they had been "punked".[213]
Reactions
An academic study conducted by economists at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and other institutions, found a correlation between viewership of Hannity and a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, relative to viewership of Tucker Carlson Tonight on the same channel.[215]
Fox fired Regan, who had claimed that the concern over coronavirus was "another attempt to impeach the president" on her show on March 9; her last appearance was on March 13.[216]
In April 2020, the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) sued Fox News under the state's Consumer Protection Act for allegedly "falsely and deceptively disseminating 'news'" that coronavirus was "not a danger to public health and safety." In response, Fox News maintained that its "political commentary" amounts to "constitutionally protected opinions" and that hosts Sean Hannity and Trish Regan participated in an "intense public debate" over the predicted severity of the threat.[217][218] On May 27,
