Fox News scrambled to contain coronavirus as hosts ranted about "hoax"

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/23/fox-news-scrambled-to-contain.html

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I think of this every time I hear another story about spring breakers partying. How can we expect 20 year olds to make a wise choice when one of the largest entertainment channels in the country is spewing propaganda about how it’s no big deal and it’s all a big hoax to “get” Trump. Every other TV they pass in public is tuned to these bloviating piles of sloth vomit. Even today we’re STILL hearing about crowded beaches and bars, and it’s not just spring breakers. And the reason for that rests directly on FOX and the president.

I will lay every death at their feet. They lack any decency or compassion to care of course, because if they had those things, they wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

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That “specific type of misinformation” is called a lie.

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This crisis is going to force Americans to reconsider a lot of practises. The idea that private cable TV providers are obliged to give space to a dangerous and hypocritical propaganda outlet masquerading as a news channel should be one of them.

To be fair, when it comes to Fox News just as often it’s called BS.

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This should be your new and/or improved band name. Well-crafted. :slight_smile:

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You win the award for best insult I’ve heard in a long time.

I might have to borrow it; hope you don’t mind.

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2g0g2z

(I guess I should update the meme; this is way beyond stupid, this is evil.)

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Oh, they are not required. They pay for the privilege of purveying the bullshit these liars shovel out of their gaping idiot-holes because for every lie that falls from their sugar-coated shit lips there is a line of moronic half-wits who have turned over their brains and can no longer evaluate information for themselves waiting and insisting on receiving this crap as if it was a message from on high.

If there was justice in this world there would be a mob storming their offices and destroying their ability to spread propaganda amongst the people.

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Well in terms of the Florida situation the state government and the Governor also refused to close those bars and beaches. Theme parks and hotels stayed open far too late.

When the official line from local authorities is “why not enjoy a daquerita at one of our many tourist destinations”. And the federal response is basically nil. How seriously is anyone gonna take it?

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On a related note about stay-at-home viewers, the core demographic of Faux is elderly people who are also most vulnerable to COVID-19 and may die as a result of not taking precautions. Murdoch’s liars likely re-inforced the existing inclination of many of them not to take the pandemic seriously in the critical early stages.

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Not at all. I’ve been trying to up my insult game and glad to hear I’m making progress.

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Maybe when everyone at Fox is infected eventually reality will worm into their brains for the first time in their lives.

What Fox does in brainwashing the American public is disgusting and I have no sympathy for them if any of them ends up dying from this because they helped spread misinformation about it in the first place

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FOX “News”: Killing off our core viewers since 2020.

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We might consider reinstating the fairness doctrine. When Reagan’s FCC yanked this rule, it set the stage for Fox News.

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Can we change that to “actionable”? Maybe “involuntary manslaughter”?

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They know the truth, they were all taking precautions. The problem with fox and all of Trump’s enablers is not the inability to see the truth, it is their desire to lie and distort the truth to fit their agendas. I’m unsure anyone ever comes back from that decision, unless maybe it is more advantageous for them to switch sides?

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If Fox News wants to pivot and say they were always serious about the threat, I can point to a Trumper I know who I (and several others) personally witnessed repeating the Fox News byline: “it’s not serious, it’s basically the flu, the summer heat will kill it”, etc. To be fair, I never heard him call it a “hoax”, but I only run into him a few times a week, and we mostly avoid talking politics.

The fact is, we all saw how China was quickly building emergency hospitals in early February, I guarantee you people at the CDC were warning Trump of the seriousness of the situation, while he was telling the public “it’s just the flu.”

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Reckless endangerment?

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All the possible responses to Fox and 45 on this insanity involve accountability. The right wing media and political class is largely defined by avoiding and/or deflecting accountability. We can expect them to stop at nothing to protect themselves and avoid any accountability for anything, because that is their primary modus operandi.

This is the crisis that will decide if the US is a democracy or a doomed empire. Good luck.

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