On MSNBC, Media Matters' Angelo Carusone explains the “real harm” caused by Fox News' dangerous COVID-19 coverage
Published
Citation From the October 10, 2021, edition of MSNBC's Yasmin Vossoughian Reports
YASMIN VOSSOUGHIAN (ANCHOR): So, in addition to Facebook and Trump's PACs sending out this misinformation, through this medium, we've also got Fox News to contend with. I want to play a bit of some of what we've been hearing on Fox News — not only when it comes to the election but, of course, COVID, the pandemic, and the COVID vaccine.
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There's times I ask myself, I don't know how these folks sleep at night when they know that they're blatantly lying and folks are going to die subsequently because of the information they're gaining from some of these mediums, for instance like Fox News saying the vaccines don't work. People then subsequently not getting vaccinated and falling ill from COVID in the hospital or getting someone else sick. It's dangerous.
ANGELO CARUSONE (PRESIDENT, MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA): Extremely.
VOSSOUGHIAN: And you guys looked into this, as well.
CARUSONE: We did. We looked at — we tried to take a big picture view of their coverage and say what does this look like as a whole? What's the general impression? You know, some people may forget individual segments but when you add it all up, what is a typical Fox viewer experiencing? And if you look at the last six months of Fox coverage, 181 of the 183 days in the last six months, Fox News not only actively campaigned against people getting vaccinated but also against public health measures as a whole. So, more — 98% of their coverage, basically, in some way was discouraging people from getting the vaccine with all sorts of dire warnings. It's going to kill you, it's more harmful than COVID, it's a secret back door to get control. They're really creating real harm.