People will get sick because they are listening to Trump’s lies and Fox News. They are trying to downplay the virus because they think it could hurt Trump’s re-election. They care about that more than public health. Democrats, who have not been brainwashed, take it seriously.
Trump doesn’t want to hear bad news so his flunkies don’t tell him. I was an analyst for the federal government for 28 years and I found that executives appreciated it when you were honest and told them bad news.
1) This gave them a chance to react and respond promptly to the problem.
2) They were better off hearing it from you instead of someone outside of their organization.
If the only way Trump gets the truth is from media reports, his staff is not doing him any favors.
Hannity attacks “Benny boy” @benyt on his show. Smith wrote a damning piece published Sunday on the failures at Fox that set the conditions which allowed for the network’s top hosts to mislead viewers about the seriousness of the coronavirus.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 25, 2020
Rupert Murdoch’s network spent seven weeks defending Donald Trump’s constant lies that COVID-19 wasn’t going to hit us like a viral tsunami.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 21, 2020
Never forget that.
"They're claiming we called the coronavirus a hoax. That is a complete and total lie." pic.twitter.com/g6kpXsH0Wn
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 24, 2020
"Two polls released this week show the troubling effects that weeks of dismissive and conspiratorial coverage of the novel coronavirus from Fox News and other right-wing media outlets and personalities had on the American public," @oliverdarcy reports https://t.co/TnxaxA1ojC
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 18, 2020
Fox’s coronavirus coverage was a low point in the network’s shameful history. It should never live it down.https://t.co/GDrgYut5HU
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) March 18, 2020
88 percent of Republicans said they trust the president as a source of information on the coronavirus. Yes, that’s been very bad. https://t.co/WkArmDHtTr
— Slate (@Slate) March 17, 2020
—@costareports writes that the American right has morphed into "a grievance coalition highly skeptical of government, science, the news and federal warnings." Costa adds, "Their conspiratorial unrest is particularly acute within right-wing media." https://t.co/P5Z2wUCxOX
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 17, 2020
Anonymous Fox producer: As the virus spreads, "the attempt to deflect and blame the media and Democrats from Trish Regan, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, Jesse Watters, and Greg Gutfeld… is really irresponsible and hazardous to our viewers" https://t.co/Cl1QPoMc2s
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/pbump/status/1238907864153903109?s=21
Fox News hosts have actively downplayed the severity of the virus, accusing Democrats and the media of pushing a hoax to hurt Trump. But the leaders of the company are taking the outbreak seriously. https://t.co/DgalMlW4q1 In other words, they know they're putting people at risk.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) March 13, 2020
We've been afraid for years about what the GOP, Fox News war on science could mean
— Will Bunch 🆘 (@Will_Bunch) March 15, 2020
Now, coronavirus and its highest death rate targets the denial of FNC's older audience
If a loved one is addicted to Fox, please try to give them the facts
My new column https://t.co/WdWLgzHeRy
Endangering your family and community to own the libs https://t.co/TVUymudTTN pic.twitter.com/4iZ6B1hEnY
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 15, 2020
On Fox & Friends, Jerry Falwell Jr claims people are "overreacting" to coronavirus, the national response is "their next attempt to get Trump," and the virus itself is a North Korean bioweapon. pic.twitter.com/2JPuNBW7C3
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 13, 2020
Fox News is risking its own viewers’ lives. https://t.co/B9XXibBHne
— Slate (@Slate) March 13, 2020
Some of Fox's coverage has been straightforward, but a significant amount has "been aimed toward framing the response to coronavirus as unwarranted hysteria" 👇 https://t.co/SidIuTR2ug
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 12, 2020
Devastating. They will study this in the future as an example of how not to communicate with the public about a global health crisis. https://t.co/yW3SGBo5VP
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) March 12, 2020
NEW YAHOO NEWS/YOUGOV POLL: Republicans largely dismiss the threat of coronavirus by wide margin https://t.co/olVnJkDIXL pic.twitter.com/gIn5DUUd3C
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 12, 2020
Not at all surprising and has little to do with media. Reality is cracking their walls and further disorienting them, intensifying a misplaced frenzy. https://t.co/E8D312gMcG
— david maraniss (@davidmaraniss) March 12, 2020
Rupert Murdoch could save lives by forcing Fox News to tell the truth about coronavirus — right now. https://t.co/lzGYlFKa0R
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) March 11, 2020
Democrats are significantly likelier to wash their hands more often now than Republicans, 63% to 48%, perhaps a reflection of faith in Trump that everything will be all right and the coronavirus will just go away. @SusanPage @JoelShannon91 https://t.co/D4uUXF5GKl
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) March 13, 2020
Ainsley Earhardt: "It's actually the safest time to fly. Everyone I know that's flying right now, terminals are pretty much dead." (It is not the safest time to fly.) pic.twitter.com/a3BnajAbj5
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) March 13, 2020
Truly deranged, InfoWars level stuff from The Federalist. pic.twitter.com/FzBTldunsg
— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) March 13, 2020
Endangering your family and community to own the libs https://t.co/TVUymudTTN pic.twitter.com/4iZ6B1hEnY
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 15, 2020
three days before Fox acted, President Trump sent Regan’s commentary and a defense of its content to his 73-million Twitter followers https://t.co/OVTPYlDMFA
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 15, 2020
This secret recording of @SenatorBurr suggests some in the GOP fully grasped how serious COVID 19 would be, but refused to say so publicly — putting American lives at risk to maintain allegiance to the Trump WH: https://t.co/QJJT2manDT
— Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) March 19, 2020
Sad! 