Faux "News" 2: U.S. State TV?

[JMarie]

Charlize Theron, interviewed about Bombshell:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-27/how-charlize-theron-found-the-hidden-megyn-kelly-for-bombshell

Quote

What is your relationship with Fox News? Do you think it should exist?

Whenever there’s a story that breaks in the news, I surf. I want to see (a) if they’re even talking about it and (b) how they’re talking about it. So I would always watch Fox that way. Observing people saying things that you so don’t believe, and saying them in full conviction, is just fascinating.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is so shocking /sarcasm "Sean Hannity spreads fake news in New Hampshire"

Spoiler

In an interview on his Monday night program, Fox News host Sean Hannity pressed Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii about her position on drug policy. When she didn’t directly answer his queries on heroin legalization, he said, “Don’t make me be a jerk.”

Actually, Hannity needs no encouragement on that front, as he showed in another moment on Monday’s program.

In a field trip to a rally for former vice president Joe Biden in New Hampshire, Hannity talked up the Democratic faithful. A highlight compilation featured the host in a series of good-natured exchanges with Biden supporters, who issued compliments about Hannity’s looks and demeanor. “You are nicer in person. You seem nicer than you are on TV, I have to give you that,” one woman said to Hannity.

Yet Hannity couldn’t stop himself from spreading the sorts of false narratives that generally go directly to a much different audience with each edition of “Hannity.” For example, he approached an older man and mentioned the famous 2018 speech in which Biden boasted about withholding $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine. “You saw the tape of Joe Biden: ‘You’re not getting a billion of our taxpayer dollars unless you fire the prosecutor investigating my son, who has zero experience in energy that’s being paid millions.’ Do you have a problem with that?” asked Hannity.

The man replied, “I don’t like Trump.”

Here’s what Hannity’s conspiracy question omitted: When Biden in late 2015 pressed Ukraine on the misdeeds of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, he was speaking for the entire Obama administration, not to mention European allies and international organizations. Though it’s true that Biden’s son Hunter served on the board of Ukrainian energy concern Burisma, the Ukrainian investigation into that company was inactive at the time of Biden’s pressure. Envoys had pushed to oust Shokin before Biden made his own case.

So the scenario that Hannity presented to the man in New Hampshire was so devoid of context as to be false. Others apparently received a similar litany of misleading circumstances from Hannity, and one of them responded correctly, “Other countries wanted him fired.” Obviously not a “Hannity” viewer.

Of course, Hannity himself could have secured a more accurate depiction of the Biden-Burisma affair if only he had read an internal Fox News document. Bryan Murphy of the network’s so-called Brain Room prepared a 162-page primer on the Ukraine scandal, with lots of details on Shokin, Rudolph W. Giuliani and a gigantic disinformation scheme. An item in the Brain Room timeline from page 35 reads as follows:

Late 2018 (Unspecified date): Giuliani participates in a Skype call with the former top Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was ousted from office after multiple Western leaders, including Biden, pressed for his removal. It’s around this time that Giuliani says he first learned of a possible Biden-Ukraine connection. “I arranged the Shokin call with the mayor,” Lev Parnas later told NPR. (241)

In a chat with another Biden rally attendee, Hannity issued this challenge: "Tell me one thing that I’ve said that’s false.”

Over the past several months, Hannity and fellow prime-timer Tucker Carlson have blasted Biden on every conceivable front, which is the sort of treatment you might expect Fox News would direct toward a front-running candidate. That may well explain why Hannity popped up at a Biden rally and not an Amy Klobuchar rally.

Things are changing, however, with Biden’s top spot in the polls tumbling and crowds at his events flagging. It might be time for Hannity to omit important facts about some other up-and-coming Democratic candidate.

 

[JMarie]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-business-host-trish-regan-unleashes-batshit-rant-about-coronavirus-impeachment-scam

rage-inducing must watch video in article

[fraurosena]

From @JMarie's article above:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was not-so-subtly calling out Trump and some of his Fox colleagues for actively downplaying and minimizing the seriousness of the outbreak.

Whaaaa?! Tucker Carlson calling out Trump? 

[JMarie]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-coronavirus-ebola-supercut_n_5e686ed3c5b60557280d8dbd

super fun video at end of article, featuring some Fox News oldies but goodies like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (what's she been up to lately?)

[WiseGirl]

23 hours ago, JMarie said:

Sarah Palin (what's she been up to lately?)

Don't judge me but she was just voted off of The Masked Singer!

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, WiseGirl said:

Don't judge me but she was just voted off of The Masked Singer!

Good God, was she singing on national television???

[LeftCoastLurker]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

Good God, was she singing on national television???

Don’t judge but I actually guessed it was her!

[JMarie]

Tucker Carlson just said Coronavirus is the flu.

[WiseGirl]

Interesting read from CNN. Title is How Fox News Misleads Viewers on Coronavirus. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/media/fox-news-coronavirus/index.html

[AmericanRose]

I hope the "it's a Democratic hoax" "oh no wait it's legit" "it's just the flu" "errr no it's more serious" back and forth will help awaken some out of their Trump stupor.

[JMarie]

Justin Trudeau's wife has tested positive for coronavirus.  Sean Hannity sends his thoughts and prayers (seriously).

And Laura Ingraham went to the supermarket today and couldn't get any ketchup.

[front hugs > duggs]

3 hours ago, JMarie said:

Good God, was she singing on national television???

I don’t consider it singing.  She rapped baby got back. It was the strangest thing I think I’ve ever witnessed in my life. 
 

Edited March 13, 2020 by front hugs > duggs
JK. TWERKING.

[mamallama]

1 minute ago, front hugs > duggs said:

I don’t consider it singing.  She rapped baby got back. It was the strangest thing I think I’ve ever witnessed in my life. 
 

Ok this isi definitely a sign of the apocolypse.

[Audrey2]

1 hour ago, JMarie said:

And Laura Ingraham went to the supermarket today and couldn't get any ketchup.

Well, it was under Ronald Reagan's presidency that ketchup was declared a vegetable for school lunches. Maybe Laura just wants some vegetables.

 

1 hour ago, mamallama said:

Ok this isi definitely a sign of the apocolypse.

Sorry, this can't be the apocalypse. The Cleveland Browns haven't won the Super Bowl, or the Cleveland Indians haven't won the last World Series.

[JMarie]

There was a woman on Fox and Friends this morning who has recovered from coronavirus.  She and her husband were on the quarantined cruise ship. She's 65 and her only symptoms were a slight fever and feeling bad for 2 or 3 hours.  Her husband, who is on anti-rejection meds for a kidney transplant, had a similar experience.  She and the F&F personalities seemed to be mocking the crisis mode that the U. S. is now in.  I wanted to throw something at the tv screen.

[GreyhoundFan]

In case anyone is curious, here's an abbreviated performance. Warning: you can't un-see/un-hear it:

 

[Cartmann99]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

In case anyone is curious, here's an abbreviated performance. Warning: you can't un-see/un-hear it:

 

*Hides behind the couch* Make it stop!

[GreyhoundFan]

40 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

*Hides behind the couch* Make it stop!

That performance could be used as a torture device, though it might be classified as cruel and unusual punishment.

[JMarie]

12 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

In case anyone is curious, here's an abbreviated performance. Warning: you can't un-see/un-hear it:

 

Ross and Rachel did it better! I wonder if she gets to keep the outfit?

[GreyhoundFan]

I would love a 40-50 year hiatus for Shamity: "How about a hiatus for Sean Hannity?"

Spoiler

Fox News host Sandra Smith on Wednesday wasn’t in the mood for garden-variety coronavirus minimization rhetoric. She was interviewing Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, organizer of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The late-February conference was the subject of much coverage, considering that an attendee who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus interacted with Republican lawmakers.

Those lawmakers, in turn, had contact with President Trump. The whole to-do attracted generous media attention. In Schlapp’s view, journalists were “trying to fan the flames of panic" on the coronavirus.

Smith dissented, telling Schlapp: “Of course, the president was then in contact with those lawmakers who were self-quarantining, which brought up the questions from many reporters.”

Yeah!

Moments of actual news coverage relating to the coronavirus at Fox News don’t receive much attention these days. The work of chief Trump propagandist Sean Hannity and other network opinionmongers speaks much louder. “I’m sure, in the end, the mob in the media, well, they will be advancing their new conspiracy theory and their newest hoax,” said the host earlier this week. That language overlaps with talking points from Trump himself and his former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who alleged at CPAC that the media has selectively highlighted the coronavirus to inflict political damage on Trump.

Another ploy of Hannity’s is to compare the coronavirus to the flu, even though experts have noted that the former is about 10 times more fatal than the latter. “Now, let’s put this in perspective. In 2017, 61,000 people in this country died from influenza, the flu. Common flu,” he said in February. “Around 100 people die every single day from car wrecks.” And he has greeted the news with resignation: “Sadly, these viruses pop up time to time,” Hannity said on Tuesday night. “Pandemics happen, time to time.”

Competition for the most irresponsible televised coronavirus analysis emerged on Monday night from Fox Business host Trish Regan, who said, in part, “We’ve reached a tipping point. The chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him and only him for a virus that originated halfway around the world. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president.” After much criticism, Fox on Friday evening announced that Regan’s show — along with Fox Business program “Kennedy" — will be on hiatus “until further notice,” part of a resource realignment to beef up coverage of the coronavirus, according to Fox News.

Compare what Regan said to the remarks of Hannity on Feb. 27: “Tonight, I can report the sky is absolutely falling. We’re all doomed. The end is near. The apocalypse is imminent, and you’re going to all die, all of you in the next 48 hours and it’s all President Trump’s fault,” he said. “Or at least that’s what the media mob and the Democratic extreme radical socialist party would like you to think. They’re now sadly politicizing and actually weaponizing an infectious disease, in what is basically just the latest effort to bludgeon President Trump."

Though Hannity has indeed insisted that the coronavirus is a serious matter, his other pronouncements have sent a different message. On that same Feb. 27 show, for instance, Hannity knocked the “left” for advocating “extreme” measures, including canceling large gatherings. Yeah, what a crazy idea!

Could we please have a hiatus for “Hannity,” too?

And never forget the sagacious medical analysis of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who said last weekend, “Now, they say the mortality rate for coronavirus is higher than a flu. But consider though that we have a flu vaccine, and yet in 2019, 16,000 Americans died from the flu. Imagine if we did not have the flu vaccine, the flu would be a pandemic,” said Pirro. “So all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn’t reflect reality. Without a vaccine, the flu would be far more deadly.”

Such stupid and dangerous commentary often contradicts, upends or grinds against the reporting on many other hours at the network. During Fox News’s so-called straight news hours — “so-called” because they occasionally succumb to the network’s tilt — hosts and correspondents have been cycling through coronavirus updates with the sort of professionalism and thoroughness of a news network.

Reportorial deployment has been extensive: Jonathan Serrie, a 21-year Fox News veteran, has been reporting from Atlanta on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Benjamin Hall, who’s based in London, has covered the international diffusion of the virus. Jonathan Hunt, from Los Angeles, has reported on the Department of Health Human Services’ handling of the crisis. David Lee Miller, from New York, has reported on the widening path of the virus. Jeff Paul, a West Coast correspondent, has covered a cruise ship sub-crisis and California’s handling of the coronavirus. Claudia Cowan, a San Francisco correspondent, has reported on Oregon’s countermeasures as well as the cruise ship beat. Rick Leventhal has reported on the National Guard deployment in New Rochelle, N.Y.

All that is just a point of departure. As if to rebut President Trump’s frequent dismissals of the coronavirus, Fox News has provided extensive programming on the issue. There have been interviews with experts and players ranging from Vice President Pence to HHS Secretary Alex Azar to the NIH’s National Institutes of Health’s Anthony S. Fauci to U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams to New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson to people infected with the coronavirus.

In a memorable encounter on her Thursday night program, host Martha MacCallum pressed Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on whether hospitals had the equipment necessary — ventilators and intensive care units — to handle a coronavirus surge. Verma ducked the question multiple times. Though MacCallum noted that Verma hadn’t provided a “direct answer,” the indirect answer said quite a bit: No, those hospitals are not prepared.

There’ll be much, much more, too: Fox News has announced an upheaval in its daily schedule — “around-the-clock live coverage” — to accommodate demand for news on the coronavirus.

So you can find helpful coronavirus coverage on Fox News. Does that consideration mitigate, contextualize or minimize the unhelpful coverage?

No, it does not. Take the nonsense that oozed from the set of “Fox & Friends” on Friday morning. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt advised viewers to take advantage of the crisis and … get on a plane. “It’s actually the safest time to fly,” said Earhardt, who was perhaps unaware that most airline passengers are separated from one another by negative-five inches. The NIH’s Fauci counseled strongly against air travel these days. Whose advice are you going to take?

Every viewer who trusts the words of Earhardt or Hannity or Regan could well become a walking, breathing, droplet-spewing threat to the public.

Opinion shows on Fox News, joked Bill Maher, are the shows “that people watch" — a reference to the disparity in ratings between wildly popular programs such as “Hannity," “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” “The Ingraham Angle” and the daytime news shows. The Erik Wemple Blog has seen this effect in real life. Over the years, we have interviewed Fox News fans at network gatherings and at conferences including CPAC and the Values Voter Summit. Asked who they trust for their news, attendees nearly always cite one of the Fox News opinion personalities, with Hannity first among equals.

These folks tend to skew older — the very demographic most at risk from the coronavirus.

When Hannity recycles Trump talking points on the coronavirus, he obliterates the work of his colleagues on the news side of the operation. “I don’t know how you could spend the day building a sandcastle … only to have primetime come in at night and kick it over," says Angelo Carusone, president of the Fox News-monitoring group Media Matters for America. Intra-Fox News tensions of this sort have persisted for years. Just last year, daytime news anchor Shepard Smith — a fellow who would have vocally counter-programmed Hannity on the coronavirus — left the network after a clash with Tucker Carlson.

Carlson, by the way, has appropriately alerted his audience to the dangers of the coronavirus, a strain of coverage consistent with the role of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in watching out for real and imagined threats.

Fox News, that is to say, has some viewpoint diversity on the coronavirus: On its news shows, it produces wide-ranging coverage of the latest developments; on one prominent opinion show, it instructs viewers to brace themselves; on yet other opinion shows, it has cast concerns about the coronavirus as a political plot in accordance with the rhetoric of Trump himself. News organizations commonly seek a diversity of opinions, the better to serve a broad audience and otherwise advance discussion of contemporary issues. It’s just not too helpful when “opinions” pooh-pooh a pandemic.

It’s a wonder that Fox News doesn’t erupt in a journalistic civil war, such is the discrepancy between its sane and insane programming. The coronavirus has at least provided a clear indication that the network’s senior managers comprehend the deadly nature of the viral threat. The company, after all, issued an internal memo requesting employees to work at home, among other measures. "Please keep in mind that viewers rely on us to stay informed during a crisis of this magnitude and we are providing an important public service to our audience by functioning as a resource for all Americans,” noted the memo, as reported by CNN’s Oliver Darcy.

Maybe Fox News management could resend that memo to Hannity?

Speaking of Hannity, he earned some applause for questioning HHS Secretary Azar on Thursday night on the scarcity of coronavirus testing. Here’s the exchange:

HANNITY: Let me ask you this — the one criticism and that seems valid, seem to be, that we were slow. We didn’t have enough test kits available. The president mentioned that, it’s since been rectified.

A, is it rectified? And why didn't we have them more quickly?

AZAR: Yes. So, the CDC invented a test within two weeks of China posting the genetic sequence, and we've developed a test, and it's been available and we had actually capacity at all times to do testing for people that needed to be tested, but it has not worked as well as we would like.

We have four and a half million tests out there. There are a surplus of tests out there, but the connection from the patient-doctor-hospital to those lab tests and the labs has not been as seamless as we'd like.

HANNITY: When will -- when will every American if they want to test for their own peace of mind, when will that be available to anybody who wants it? And I know the president, by the way, did get the co-pays removed from the insurance companies who he met with. That’s a big deal in my mind.

When will it be available to everybody who wants it, anyplace, anytime?

AZAR: So, he did get those co-pays removed on those tests.

It's getting better and better every day. We're getting the private sector involved and that's going to make it a more seamless experience. We're already seeing in Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota, and now, in New Rochelle, New York, drive through sampling so you can get sampled, the test will get sent away and you get those results.

So, we’re making it a more seamless experience each and every day.

Actual accountability journalism from Hannity. Except that, earlier in the program, the host expressed a more definitive take on the testing issue: “I have no problem with cancellations, no problems taking every precaution necessary,” said Hannity. “I understand the criticism — the testing kits took too long to come out, fair criticism. That’s been rectified. Now they are becoming readily available.”

Oh really?

 

[JMarie]

21 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

along with Fox Business program “Kennedy"

I am so deeply saddened by the defection of formerly hipster-before-it-was-a-thing MTV VJ Kennedy to the Dumb Side

[GreyhoundFan]

"Tucker Carlson, America’s new ‘moral’ leader"

Spoiler

To hear Fox News host Tucker Carlson tell it, he was “embarrassed” to talk about the coronavirus crisis with President Trump during an event at Mar-a-Lago. He wanted to slip in and out on his tippy toes. “My intention was to get in and out of there without being seen by anybody,” Carlson told Joe Hagan in a mind-blowing Vanity Fair interview. “And I had even asked the Secret Service to help me do that because, again, I was embarrassed that I was doing this and I didn’t feel it was my role. I didn’t want anyone to know I was doing it.”

So fervently did Carlson want to suppress this information that he did a monster interview with Vanity Fair touting it. Details of the session emerged in the New York Times, with the news attributed to a “a person with knowledge of their conversation.”

There is no way that person was Tucker Carlson.

Surely, Carlson was embarrassed, too, by revelations that he counseled Trump last year over a clash with Iran. The Daily Beast carried the details of that bit of policy-adviser moonlighting, thanks to a certain someone: “A source familiar with the conversations told The Daily Beast that, in recent weeks, the Fox News host has privately advised Trump against taking military action against Iran.”

It’s time that Carlson cracked down on this loudmouth! No more embarrassing him!

Somewhere in Carlson’s declaration of embarrassment is an awareness of ethics: Journalists present their work to the public, as Carlson does every weeknight on Fox News. Beyond that, they don’t dispense political advice, or at least they shouldn’t. Doing so gives them a direct and potentially corrupting stake in outcomes — outcomes that they’ll later have to address in their work.

In the case of coronavirus, it’s apparent that whatever quibbles Carlson may have had about his role were overruled by greater considerations. “I felt I had a moral obligation to be useful in whatever small way I could, and, you know, I don’t have any actual authority,” Carlson told Vanity Fair. “I’m just a talk show host. But I felt — and my wife strongly felt — that I had a moral obligation to try and be helpful to in whatever way possible.”

Remember: This is a man who also felt a moral obligation to assert that immigrants were making the United States “dirtier”; to suggest that Democrats “hate” America; to demagogue alleged crimes by undocumented immigrants; to make unspeakably demeaning and racist remarks on a radio show; to sow fear and misinformation about alleged South African efforts to strip white farmers of their land.

A more accurate look at Carlson’s motivations emerges from his show transcripts, which depict a host on the lookout for threats to the great American way of life. As the Erik Wemple Blog wrote in a previous post, this role aligns with the tendencies of the Fox News crowd. Whatever the explanation for the coverage, Carlson has been right about the threat of the coronavirus. He hopped on the story and stayed on it, while others on TV news dipped in and out — including his prime-time Fox News cohort Sean Hannity. Here’s Carlson’s explanation to Vanity Fair about the origins of the focus: “January is when we first started covering it on the show. And you know, there have been a number of epidemics to come out of China — the 1957 flu epidemic, which killed 100,000 people in this country. And so when these reports began to emerge, we covered it.”

Carlson wants it all. He wants to consort with the Trump crew at Mar-a-Lago, and insist that he was trying to escape without notice, even though he shows up in a photo with the likes of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and fellow Fox Newser Jesse Watters. Carlson also wants to rail against the U.S. “ruling class” in a book, in TV segments and in interviews, even though he just did a Vanity Fair interview situating himself as a very influential member of that class.

But a reluctant one!

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Fox News has a new coronavirus expert: Dr. Sean!"

Spoiler

Fox News is padding its medical team. It announced on Monday the hiring of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as a medical contributor. She serves as medical director of urgent care clinic provider CityMD. In a release, the network noted that Nesheiwat’s accession supplemented its existing medical ranks, which include the recently added Dr. Martin Makary, as well as Dr. Nicole Saphier, Dr. Manny Alvarez and Dr. Marc Siegel.

Yet the release omitted another key addition, a fellow who we are coming to think of as “Dr. Sean.”

In the 9 p.m. prime-time slot at Fox News on Tuesday, Dr. Sean emphasized the collective responsibility of all Americans to comply with the public health measures urged by federal, state and local authorities across the land. He’s really on top of all these measures, Dr. Sean is. “Take the following crucial precautions over the next couple of weeks. Do it why?” Dr. Sean said to his viewers. “Because we love our grandmothers, our grandfathers, our older moms and dads. They are the most vulnerable. They are the most at risk.”

Dr. Sean, you see, has reviewed the relevant medical literature and can outline the entire coronavirus decision tree on live television: “If you feel sick, stay home. If the kids feel sick, keep them at home. Anyone in your house tests positive for the coronavirus, keep the entire household at home.” Dr. Sean might have added a comment about self-isolation.

What do folks such as Nesheiwat and Makary and Saphier and Siegel have over Dr. Sean? Not too much! Listen to the prime-time doc explain other contingencies: “If you are an elderly person or someone with these underlying medical conditions or you have a compromised immune system or autoimmune disease, or you went through chemotherapy and radiation, you need to stay away from other people on your own,” counseled Dr. Sean on Tuesday. “If possible, work from home. Avoid discretionary travel. Avoid big, social gatherings. Avoid nursing homes. Avoid large group settings.”

Bolding added to highlight a point of possible confusion for viewers of the 9 p.m. offerings on Fox News. A while back, the host of this same hour made a statement apparently contradicting the advice of Dr. Sean: “Now, we have some on the left literally whipping this country into a frenzy, some promoting extreme measures immediately: Close schools immediately, day care centers, businesses, mass transit systems and the cancellation of any large gathering," said this particular host. According to the show transcript, the host was a man named “Sean Hannity.” Surely no relation to Dr. Sean, though they look a lot alike.

This “Sean Hannity” character also blamed liberals for playing up the pandemic: “The apocalypse is imminent and you’re going to all die, all of you in the next 48 hours, and it’s all President Trump’s fault,” said “Sean Hannity” on Feb. 27. “Or at least that’s what the media mob and the Democratic extreme radical socialist party would like you to think. They’re now sadly politicizing and actually weaponizing an infectious disease, in what is basically just the latest effort to bludgeon President Trump.”

Dr. Sean, by contrast, opened his Tuesday night program by expressing his support for social distancing. “It works, and everybody’s got to do it,” said Dr. Sean, who also offered supportive words for the mobilization against the coronavirus. The Defense Department, noted Dr. Sean, is doing everything from releasing additional ventilators to preparing for overflow from hospitals. The National Guard is pitching in to assist states with their countermeasures. “It’s [an] all-hands-on-deck" situation, said Dr. Sean.

Thanks to Dr. Sean, Fox News viewers are getting the latest in pandemic lingo. “By simply doing nothing," said Dr. Sean on Tuesday night, "we can all save lives. We can flatten the curve of the disease.” Sure we can, so long as we don’t let Dr. Sean’s predecessor back on the air.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘China has blood on its hands’: Fox News hosts join Trump in blame-shifting"

Spoiler

On Wednesday night, several of Fox News’s most popular personalities sent a clear message to their audiences: There is only one country to blame for the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

“This calamity, this pandemic, was avoidable,” Tucker Carlson said on his prime-time show. “It happened because China hid the truth about what was happening from the rest of the world.”

Hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham took their criticisms of China even further.

“Their months-long coverup is now causing death and destruction and carnage all over the world,” Hannity said.

“China has blood on its hands,” Ingraham gravely told viewers.

The finger-pointing that unfolded over three hours of television came just as some Fox News figures were beginning to acknowledge the severity of the pandemic and the threat it poses to the United States and the rest of the world. For several weeks, as The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison reported, Trump’s allies on Fox News, with the exception of Carlson, were inclined to take the same stance that the president himself promoted: the novel coronavirus, which had sickened and killed thousands of people worldwide, was no worse a threat than the seasonal flu.

Now, having changed their tune on the seriousness of the crisis, they appear to be working on narratives that explain away the Trump administration’s widely acknowledged inadequacies in addressing it.

Trump appears to be engaged in the same effort. He too had minimized the threat until just this week, at which point he stopped referring to the novel virus by its scientific name and instead switched to calling it the “Chinese virus.” Along with “Wuhan virus,” the label has repeatedly been used by conservatives amid the outbreak, sparking accusations of racism from Chinese officials and many Asian Americans. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he started using “Chinese virus” in response to China “putting out information which was false that our military gave [the virus] to them.”

“Rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China,” Trump said. “So I think it’s a very accurate term.”

At a news conference Wednesday, Trump defended repeatedly using the term, but stopped short of assigning full blame to China, saying, “I don’t know if you’d say China is to blame. Certainly, we didn’t get an early run on it. It would have been helpful if we knew about it earlier.”

Meanwhile, the Fox News hosts, all of whom are ardent Trump supporters, didn’t hold back.

Kicking things off at 8 p.m., Carlson went after the media for complaining about U.S. leaders calling the virus “Chinese,” suggesting that this type of outrage is exactly what China wants.

“They know that wokeness is our Achilles’ heel and they know they can control us with it,” said Carlson, who has referred to covid-19 as the “Chinese coronavirus” on-air. “They know that any conversation in this country no matter how serious can be shut down instantly by somebody saying, ‘Racism.’ That’s why they’re pushing it.”

The bashing of China continued with Hannity, who told viewers at the top of his show, “We have a very serious message for China’s hostile dictatorship.”

“China must be held accountable,” Hannity said, accusing the foreign country’s leaders of "[caring] more about optics than the lives of not only their own citizens, but the world community."

It is true, as The Washington Post’s Gerry Shih, Emily Rauhala and Lena H. Sun reported in February, that Chinese officials did little to inform the public about the outbreak during its early stages and sought to downplay the risk of human-to-human transmission.

But Trump has also been accused of minimizing the virus.

“We have it totally under control,” the president said on Jan. 22.

“We’re in very good shape,” he said on Feb. 14.

“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” he tweeted on Feb. 24.

There are now at least 218,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide and more than 8,700 reported deaths. In the U.S., thousands have been infected and the death toll had reached 137 by early Thursday.

The actions of the Chinese government left Hannity seething Wednesday night.

“People all over the world suffering and dying as a result of these lies,” the host said.

At the end of his hour, Hannity passed the torch to Ingraham to finish out the night.

In her opening monologue, Ingraham stressed the importance of cooperation as health experts worldwide work toward finding a vaccine. The need to “openness” applies especially to China, she said.

“If they're not operating in total transparency regarding this disease, then we have to ask ourselves why we want to continue to be integrated with them at all on any issue,” Ingraham said.

The host then delivered a pointed warning to Chinese leaders.

“President Xi and his Politburo have to come clean here or we need to reconsider or consider, frankly, taking severe measures against Beijing,” she said, suggesting the possible implementation of tariffs and travel limitations, among other actions.

“Much, if not all of this, could have been avoided if China had only been forthcoming from day one,” Ingraham later added. “My friends, this cannot stand.”