Chris Hayes has officially had it with Fox News. On Tuesday, Mediaite reports, the host of MSNBC’s All In torched the competing—and controversial—network for its dangerous coverage of COVID-19 and the importance of getting vaccinated. After sharing footage of an anti-vaccine rally in New York City that ended in Union Square with “protestors” knocking over a mobile COVID testing site, Hayes surmised that the message being sent there was: “Stop talking about COVID. Stop reminding us this thing is real and dangerous and we have to do something about it. I don’t want to hear it. Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
So what’s fueling this kind of stupidity? Well, Tucker Carlson for one—or, as Hayes calls him: “Vaccine Public Enemy No. 1.” But even more so is the carelessness with which Fox News allows both its anchors and guests to spout opinion over fact when it comes to COVID. “Do not underestimate how many lies are being pumped into people watching these shows,” Hayes warned his viewers, adding that: “Media Matters ran the numbers. They shared a new study with us… that shows that Fox News pushed a claim undermining vaccines during 99 percent of the days in the past six months.”
While anyone who is critical of Fox News probably would not be surprised by that statistic (or if they are, would only be surprised that it wasn’t 100 percent), one of Hayes’ biggest issue with the network’s anti-vaccine rhetoric is its hypocrisy. As he explained:
“Of course, what makes all this so deeply cynical, aggressively cynical, is that while Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News is the source of so much of this—they have been running one of the most destructive disinformation campaigns I’ve ever seen—Rupert Murdoch himself was among the first in line to get a vaccine back in the UK back in December of last year. [He] strongly encouraged people around the world to get it.
Not only that, Fox News also has a vaccine mandate stronger than the one proposed by President Joe Biden. They are requiring any unvaccinated employees to be tested every day! And, of course, while many of their on-air hosts were rambling against COVID restrictions, they were broadcasting their shows from the safety of their own homes…
So, inside Fox News, everyone takes this seriously. They’re in on the joke, I guess? They understand the science is quite solid. They understand the methods for preventing infection, severe illness, hospitalization, and death; for methods for maintaining a safe workplace are all pretty clear. When they go on air, they undermine that exact message.”
You can watch the full clip above.
(Via Mediaite)