If you’ve been watching Fox News since Election Day, you might have noticed something has suddenly gone missing: their deathly fears – which they once seemed to have felt duty-bound to instill in every single viewer – over Ebola. Coincidentally, the panic seems to have dissipated just at the time that President Obama asked for emergency funds to fight the disease.
Remember when Bill O’Reilly suggested President Obama wasn’t taking enough action to fight Ebola because of “political correctness?” Or when Greta Van Susteren accused Obama of not “doing his job” of putting “strong rules and policies in effect to meet the predictable crisis?” How about Megyn Kelly suggesting that an American Ebola patient had spread the disease around New York City? Perhaps the worst was Neil Cavuto saying, “I’m telling you, be afraid because none of this ends nicely. …If I’m lying, I’m dying. Or is that if they’re lying, we’re all dying?”
You probably could not watch any Fox News show without hearing something designed to make you afraid of Ebola.
But that was so pre-midterm elections! Now that President Obama has requested $6.2 billion in emergency funding from Congress, post election, not so much.
Media Matters sums up:
Fox News pivoted its stance on the public health threat posed by Ebola after leading the charge in media stoking fears about the disease in the weeks prior to the midterm elections. The network is now downplaying the urgency of increasing funding for Ebola research and relief efforts while criticizing President Obama’s request of a multi-billion dollar Ebola emergency appropriation from Congress.
Case in point: “health policy expert” and frequent Fox guest Betsy McCaughey. Media Matters caught McCaughey saying on Fox, pre-election:
Let’s discuss also the preparations that are being undergone now in cities all across this country, especially in the five airport hubs, such as Chicago and New York, to prepare hospitals, to prepare transportation workers, to prepare EMS, first responders. Hundreds of millions of dollars preparing them in case there’s an Ebola case here in the United States again. When in fact that money could be much more wisely spent overseas.
And:
...(T)onight the president said, well, there may be more cases but it won't spread widely. Well what do they mean by that weasel word "widely," how many deaths are acceptable? One, two, 10? It's unacceptable for Americans to die from Ebola.
But on yesterday’s Fox & Friends, McCaughey said:
Five thousand people have died from Ebola, right? No Americans. Three hundred and sixty thousand Americans die from cancer every year. The president wants to spend a hundred times as much, per Ebola victim, as per cancer victim. That tells you what’s going on here.
…This Ebola grant will take away from the research we urgently need to solve these other heath care problems.
…The president may be exploiting the sense of danger right here in the United States…
Yesterday, McCaughey also suggested that the only thing the U.S. should do about Ebola is to prevent West Africans from leaving their countries.
This virus does not have wings. But the World Health Organization and the White House are giving it wings, airplane wings. Allowing it to spread to North America, Europe, Australia, other continents of the world. We have no cure and no vaccine. It is unconscionable to let this virus spread. It should be contained with travel restrictions.
That’s right, let them die over there so we don’t have to spend any money over here. Or, probably more to the point of Fox News producers, let them die over there, while we come up with useless travel restrictions so we can score more political points over here.
Watch McCaughey's before and after election positions below.
I’m sure there are others.
The masses can use this against these cafeteria Catholic clowns by morphing this into a conspiracy. Tell their audience (in a suspicious and panic tone):
What is Fox “News” hiding about Ebola? (emphasize the word hiding)
Why the sudden silence of Fox “News” coverage of Ebola? (emphasize sudden silence)
Has the government told them to keep quiet about Ebola? (emphasize keep quite)
Do this to every viewer you see on the streets.
This is such standard right wing practice. When something is no longer useful as a political cudgel, it just disappears down the memory hole. And this is why I think Fox watchers are so stupid. The GOP pulls this type of thing time and time again (remember those color coded terror alerts that disappeared the day after the 2004 election?), and the followers just automatically accept the new info. Talk about sheep!