Fox News learned nothing from its deadly coronavirus failure – By Matt Gertz (Media Matters) / Mar 16 2021
One year ago tomorrow, Fox & Friends viewers tuned in to see the hosts of the morning show broadcasting from three different sets in Fox News’ sprawling studio. As Steve Doocy explained, he and his fellow co-hosts were following the federal guidelines intended to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This likely came as a surprise to the program’s audience: Fox & Friends, like much of the network’s other programming, had argued for weeks that the coronavirus did not pose a substantial health risk.
Along with the rest of the right-wing media, Fox failed its audience. The 12 months that followed were the deadliest in modern American history. Recorded U.S. COVID-19 deaths have climbed from roughly 100 a year ago to more than 530,000 — and that figure represents a substantial undercount. Americans who decided not to take precautions in response to the network’s lackadaisical, partisan coverage of the pandemic — as well as those infected by people who did so — are undoubtedly among that grim total.
Fox’s treatment of the pandemic revealed just how little its on-air talent and executive corps really care about the viewers who make them rich and famous. And the network’s ongoing handling of the face masks and vaccines that provide the best hope for a return to normalcy in the near future show that nothing has changed over the past year.
