The Fox News/Murdoch family hypocrisy would be laughable if it didn’t have potentially lethal consequences for their fans.

From Variety:

In an internal memo to Fox Corporation employees Tuesday morning, CEO Lachlan Murdoch told staff that the company is deferring its next possible phase one reopening date to “no earlier than September 7, immediately after Labor Day.”

The company had previously set a return-to-work date no earlier than April of this year, amid the ongoing pandemic.

While Murdoch and his well-paid employees protect their own fannies, they couldn’t be more eager for viewers to risk theirs.

In fact, Fox has been urging its viewers to shrug off any concerns about dying for the past year. When Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick twice suggested older people should be willing to die for the sake of the economy, Fox’s Brit Hume called that an “entirely reasonable viewpoint.”

Brian Kilmeade gave his support to violent protesters storming the Oregon Capitol demanding that the state re-open by saying, “I ask you, what else can they do? … They're not against America, they want to work in America. They want to live the American Dream.”

After two New Jersey gym owners were shut down by the New Jersey Board of Health for defying the state’s law to remain closed, Kilmeade suggested, “Could you key yourself right back in and open up?”

“This is what freedom looks like!” an unmasked Will Cain gushed to a filled-to-capacity diner in Texas on the day that Gov. Greg Abbott lifted the mask mandate and other COVID restrictions. Want to bet Cain is not complaining about the delayed re-opening at Fox?

And all that is nothing compared to Fox’s demand that schools re-open.

In July, Martha MacCallum suggested to Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders that the then-candidate’s caution about reopening schools was based on un-American fear: “So who will lead the way, who will put the fear into perspective and to restore, as FDR did in that speech, the American optimism that has always characterized this nation?” MacCallum “asked,”

That same month, Kilmeade lectured, “Life is full of risks, kids should learn that early that life is full of hurdles, you've got to find a way to overcome.”

Last month, Cain compared closed-school policies to Jim Crow laws and Japanese internments, “one of the the worst policy decisions of the last century."

Mark Levin likened teachers seeking COVID protections to segregationists barring school doors.

But just to show you how out of touch Lachlan Murdoch is, here are quotes from his memo to staff, via the Variety article:

“Beyond the accomplishments of our business, we have been enormously successful in cultivating a collaborative and caring culture,” reads the memo. “Your support for each other, particularly during the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, has exemplified the FOX family mentality. While we spent the last year working in new, and often remote, ways, you have continued to prioritize caring for each other. Similarly, the health and safety of our workforce has remained my priority. With that as the guiding principle, we are deferring our next possible phase one reopening date to no earlier than September 7, immediately after Labor Day.”

OK, maybe the staff cared for each other. But they certainly haven’t cared much for their viewers. That’s true for Lachlan Murdoch as well.

(Murdoch image via screen grab)