Right-wing media dismiss efforts to save thousands of lives as a "War on Thanksgiving" – Media Matters for America

Setting aside the fact that these guidelines are completely optional, its worth remembering that one of the reasons were still struggling to control the virus more than eight months into the pandemic is that both the larger public and our elected officials didnt take necessary action early on. This inaction often drew cheers from conservative media outlets and commentators, who spent significant portions of the year trying to undermine public health guidelines while downplaying the danger presented by the virus.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fox News has been a major source of COVID-19 misinformation and a consistent critic of measures to slow the spread of the virus. Whether it was promoting the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine despite a total lack of evidence for its effectiveness as a coronavirus treatment or playing host to anti-mask advocate and Covid Contrarian Alex Berenson, Fox has been an unfortunately influential voice in the national discussion around the pandemic, downplaying the deadliness of the disease, criticizing states for enacting restrictions on public gatherings, and bashing the idea of lockdowns. While its impossible to know exactly how different the impact of the pandemic would be if Foxs advice had been ignored by the president and his loyal supporters, months of preaching defiance in the face of science hasnt helped matters. If not for Foxs destructive monthslong assault on public health, its within the realm of possibilities that we could be enjoying something closer to a normal holiday season.

This isnt going to be a relatively normal holiday season, however, and Fox News isnt taking that news particularly well. On Tuesdays edition of Fox & Friends, Fox Business host Charles Payne referred to COVID-related restrictions implemented by Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a push for separation of families, invoking the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy targeting children of undocumented immigrants. On Monday, White House Coronavirus Task Force adviser Dr. Scott Atlas went on Fox News to criticize the idea that elderly Americans who are most at risk from the virus shouldnt take part in large family celebrations, fatalistically adding that for many people this is their final Thanksgiving.

Fox News host Sean Hannity, who has been one of the biggest sources of destructive COVID-19 coverage, has posted at least a dozen tweets about Thanksgiving. On Monday, he hyped appearances by right-wing commentator Dave Rubin and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on his show by claiming that the Left was waging a war on Thanksgiving. After Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio curtailed the annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, Hannity called him the Worlds Worst Mayor.

View post:

Right-wing media dismiss efforts to save thousands of lives as a "War on Thanksgiving" - Media Matters for America