Chris Hayes lambastes Fox hosts for attacking vaccine and testing requirements on-air while quietly submitting to Fox’s requirements behind the scenes
Hayes: “Notice by the way they don’t call out their employer, they could if they had courage. If you think it’s tyranny you could do that on air, but you won’t”
Published
Citation From the September 28, 2021, edition of MSNBC's All In with Cris Hayes
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Then there are the benefits for right-wing media machine. I want you to listen to this quote very closely. One Fox News insider succinctly described the anti-COVID mandate segments and vaccine resistant commentary as quote, “great for ratings." Another current Fox employee said the numbers clearly demonstrate that there are vanishingly fewer subjects these days that get “our viewers more excited or engaged than" those kinds of segments.
I'm sure it's probably true. They kind of know what they're doing over there. The issue rates, so that's why leaning into it, despite the fact that it might get their own viewers sick or killed, despite the fact that Fox News has a vaccine requirement itself. Their own human resources department said earlier this month “90% of full-time employees reported they are fully vaccinated" after the company, wait for it, mandated everyone to report their vaccination status. Oh my god, that's a private decision, how dare they.
And they would soon be introducing daily testing for those who are still unvaccinated. Daily testing, that is five times as onerous as the policy Joe Biden proposed that unvaccinated workers be tested weekly. The policy they are railing against day in day out and calling tyranny. Notice by the way they don't call out their employer, they could if they had any courage. If you think it's tyranny, you could do that on air, but you won't. And I am willing to bet you that nearly all those people who go on air every night and rail against it, they are vaccinated, their loved ones are vaccinated.
They're selling this poison because it is profitable for them. And they truly do not care, I mean I don't know what's in their hearts but their revealed preference, all I can judge is their actions — do not seem to care if people who watch them get killed as a result. And yes, there are actual human beings taking their last breaths with a plastic tube down their throat while they say goodbye to loved ones over an iPad. Entire universes of memories and life experiences snuffed out forever but guess what, it's great for ratings.