Video shows how Fox News rapidly shifted from downplaying coronavirus to taking it seriously as cases rose across the US
- Fox News has rapidly shifted from downplaying coronavirus to urging Americans to take the pandemic seriously, mimicking President Donald Trump's tone shift on the virus.
- The Washington Post documented this dramatic shift in a video.
- The video shows hosts like Jeanine Pirro on March 7 stating that "all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn't reflect reality," to calling it "incredibly contagious and dangerous virus" on March 14.
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As President Donald Trump repeatedly downplayed the novel coronavirus for weeks, Fox News sang a similar and dangerously misleading tune.
Many the conservative network's most prominent hosts dismissed the threat of the virus, accusing the rest of the media of being "panic pushers" and whipping up mass hysteria. After Trump declared a national emergency over coronavirus last Friday the tone on Fox News shifted, which the Washington Post documented in a viral video.
The video shows Fox Business hosts like Trish Regan move from suggesting coronavirus is "yet another attempt to impeach" Trump, to stating that the US must test for the virus to stop the spread and warning of an impending economic recession. That shift occurred within a matter of days, between March 9 and March 13. Amid ongoing backlash to Regan equating coronavirus with impeachment, on Friday it was announced that she's been removed from her primetime slot indefinitely.
Among other hosts, the video shows Jeanine Pirro on March 7 stating that "all the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn't reflect reality." Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious disease, told House lawmakers a few days later that coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, is 10 times more deadly than the flu.
On March 14, Pirro painted coronavirus in far more stark terms, calling it an "incredibly contagious and dangerous virus."
Much like Trump's statements on COVID-19, Fox News' coverage of coronavirus was consistently at odds with what public health experts were saying. And it didn't change until Trump declared a national emergency.
After the declaration, hosts like Sean Hannity, who on March 10 downplayed COVID-19 and said it was being used as a "political weapon" against Trump, applauded the president and told views "his virus is serious" while urging them to "prepare accordingly."
Trump has gone from repeatedly downplaying the virus, at one point suggesting it's a Democratic "hoax" to hurt him politically, to taking a far more serious tone this week and calling COVID-19 an "invisible enemy."
The president often takes queues from Fox News, and vice versa, which is perhaps most evident via his tweets. Coronavirus has been no exception to this trend.
Trump's dramatic tone shift on coronavirus was reportedly inspired by Tucker Carlson of Fox News, who broke from the pack on his network last Monday and warned viewers: "Our country is likely to experience a painful period we are powerless to stop." He was talking about the virus.
In what was seemingly a reference to Trump, Carlson went on to say, "People you trust - people you probably voted for - have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem."
Sam Nunberg, who advised Trump on media before his 2016 campaign, told the Washington Post that Trump's turnaround was linked to Carlson's monologue.
"The conservative media echo-sphere was playing to the president's worst tendencies, but you can almost time his turnaround publicly to how Breitbart and Tucker Carlson have been covering coronavirus," Nunberg said.
Some Fox News hosts have admitted they did not take coronavirus seriously enough at first.
"I didn't take the social distancing that seriously Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. I went out to dinner here in the city," host Jesse Watters told viewers Monday. "And I woke up this morning I realized that was not the right move. I am no longer going out to dinner."