While Fox honcho Rupert Murdoch rakes in the dough attacking COVID vaccines and vaccine mandates for his viewers, it turns out he had a strict vaccine mandate for himself at his recent birthday party.
Politico reported on Friday that at Murdoch's 90th birthday party in New York City the week before, “guests not only had to show proof of vaccination, they had to get a rapid nose swab test in order to enter.”
According to Variety, Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and Fox Business Big Lie promoter and codefendant Maria Bartiromo were in attendance. That’s the same Maria Bartiromo who goaded Donald Trump into bashing boosters when he appeared on her show in August and the same Bartiromo who helped validate a conspiracy theory that vaccines don’t work. Betcha she didn’t raise those issues with Murdoch, though!
This is far from the only “COVID safety for me, not for thee” hypocrisy from Murdoch's Fox News. Besides the company’s everyday policy in which employees must either provide proof of vaccination or be tested daily (a policy more stringent than the supposedly “tyrannical” Biden policy), Fox Corp. is requiring vaccines or proof of a negative COVID test PLUS face masks at its November 10th annual shareholders meeting.
As Media Matters noted on November 1 in a post about the shareholders meeting requirements, “By contrast, Fox News gave favorable coverage just last week to an anti-vaccine mob that tried to storm the Brooklyn Nets basketball arena in support of benched vaccine refuser Kyrie Irving. Fox hosts and guests have also compared similar vaccine mandates to 'medical apartheid' and 'Jim Crow.'
By the way, if anyone is in Los Angeles on the 10th, you can let the shareholders know about the Murdoch's killer hypocrisy by showing up at 10 am at the Zanuck Theatre at the FOX Studio Lot on10201 West Pico Boulevard. A map and directions can be found here.
(Murdoch image via screen grab)