As the U.S. reached the gruesome milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths Wednesday evening, Fox News did its best to bury the information that was unflattering to Trump but that its viewers would probably have found newsworthy.
As Mediaite noted, Fox treated the news like a personal embarrassment or an inconvenient fly in its reopening cheerleading ointment:
A quick snapshot of the national media’s online coverage during Wednesday’s prime time provided a perfect snapshot of this stark dichotomy. As the 9:00 p.m. hour arrived, major newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today as well as broadcast and cable TV networks were leaning heavily into the 100,000-figure across the top of their homepages, surrounding the news with accompanying photos, columns, and memorials mourning the vast numbers of dead. But on Fox News’ homepage, the first screen’s worth of news was devoid of any mention of the 100,000 death toll. Instead, underneath the main headlines, its second section led off with an item about The Five co-host Jesse Watters blasting Fauci as someone who “flip-flops more than a politician.” Below that sat two other Covid-related stories, one warning of the danger of a “lock-down generation” and one with Fauci cautioning about being “overconfident” in reopening the economy.
Media Matters dove into the data:
Online, the story was buried at the bottom of Fox’s website on Wednesday and had disappeared by Thursday morning. On the network’s airwaves, it has generally been relegated to brief mentions, referenced only late in programs, or ignored altogether. In total, Fox devoted only 11 minutes of airtime to the story between 5 p.m. EST Wednesday and noon Thursday, according to a Media Matters review.
Fox host Laura Ingraham briefly interrupted her Wednesday night diatribe about the “power-crazed leftist governors" supposedly using “scare tactics" about the novel coronavirus and acknowledged the horrendous death toll the United States has suffered from the virus. “The Angle, of course, isn’t saying that the coronavirus shouldn’t be taken seriously; we take it very seriously,” she said. “The human toll, the economic toll -- of course we’ve passed 100,000 deaths. It’s just been heartbreaking.”
That was the sole mention a Fox prime-time host made [Wednesday] night about the U.S. reaching that grim milestone, part of a consistent pattern at Fox of not discussing the death toll during its most-watched hours. On Tucker Carlson’s program the same evening, the figure came up only in clips from other networks that the host pilloried as excessively critical of President Donald Trump. Sean Hannity, meanwhile, devoted his entire broadcast to George Floyd and the Minnesota protests in response to his killing by a police officer.
Media Matters also made the point that while the prime time hosts did talk about the pandemic, they left out the part about the huge death toll.
And then there was this:
She ended up devoting more time to the question of whether Joe Biden farted during a recent online town hall than she did the 100,000 coronavirus deaths milestone. pic.twitter.com/GCEokD7HBd
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 28, 2020
For a sense of the news that Fox is trying to hide, check out Wolf Blitzer’s tribute to the 100,000 dead below, from CNN’s March 27, 2020 Situation Room. I warn you, though: it’s heartbreaking.
Also underneath is a new video out from our friends at Brave New Films today that does a great job of illustrating the magnitude of the death toll… so far.
On Thursday she was raging over the CNN reporter getting arrested live on their network. She was throwing a fit CNN was making the news about themselves. Commenters – mostly MAGA cultists – were claiming it was a CNN conspiracy, a set up.
Friday when protesters were attacking CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta she did a 180 to hypocritically mock CNN for not covering it even though it wasn’t safe for any CNN reporter. Later after police formed a line to protect the building a CNN reporter did report from the lobby.
