Just hours before Laura Ingraham claimed she was so worried about COVID-19 stay-at-home orders that it kept her up at night, Ingraham and several other Fox News hosts appeared in a PSA promoting CDC recommendations to stay at home.
On the April 16, 2020 Your World, right after Stephen Moore lectured viewers about “re-opening,” Fox aired on my Dish Network feed the PSA that began with Ingraham. She was not the one to specifically recommend staying at home, but she clearly suggested that fighting for freedom means fighting the coronavirus. Yet on her primetime show, Ingraham has promoted the “freedom” to catch and spread COVID-19.
Here’s the jaw-dropping hypocrisy from the Fox stars (minus Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity) touting the need to stay at home, apparently from their own homes:
INGRAHAM; Our country has had to fight for its freedom so many times, we’ve been through so many challenges.
STEVE DOOCY: Today, our freedom is under siege from a virus that we all have the power to defeat.
ED HENRY: By staying home, practicing social distancing when in public.
SANDRA SMITH: And washing our hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
BRIAN KILMEADE: Support our families. Support the first responders.
BRET BAIER: Support each other.
AINSLEY EARHARDT: Go to coronavirus.gov to find the latest information to keep you and your family safe.
Yes, that is the same Ainsley Earhardt who once argued that "the safest time to fly” is during the coronavirus pandemic.
But worse than that is how Fox News has promoted the exact opposite behavior. Its two biggest stars, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson have deliberately worked to undermine staying at home and social distancing and, at the same time, have smeared those who support. Media Matters has a good roundup of how the network has been trying to sabotage what it pretends to support.,
Sorry, Fox, you can’t cover your you-know-what with an occasionally-aired PSA while your primetime hosts put forth a pro-death agenda.
You can watch the hypocrisy below from the April 16, 2020 Your World. I kept in the teaser for an upcoming segment with Jeff Sessions to verify the date.