As the Delta variant continues to cause a rise in COVID-19 cases, specifically amongst the unvaccinated, there’s been an increased amount of scrutiny on Fox News’ penchant for spreading vaccine misinformation. Case in point, a Montana man recently became a social media hero after he confronted Tucker Carlson to his face in a fly fishing store. But while the rhetoric against Fox may seem partisan, CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten ran the numbers, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the right-wing news network.
While breaking down the data on Monday morning, Enten showed that the media consumption of viewers is directly connected to their vaccine status. Amongst the major networks, Fox News viewers came last in the number of vaccinated. Via Mediaite:
“Just 62% of people who use Fox News as their main news source have at least one dose,” he noted, compared to people who get their news from network news (ABC, CBS, NBC) which is 79%. Viewers of CNN and MSNBC came in at 83%. “What we see is about 20 points less of the Fox News audience has been vaccinated compared to the people who get their news from say, some other television outlet,” he added.
Granted, Fox News started slightly changing its tune last week, and Enten reports there has been a slight uptick in vaccinations, the damage is clearly evident. Even more concerning is that Fox News has a considerably older demographic. While the average age for most cable news is 48, the average for Fox viewers is 55, which is significant, considering older Americans are the most at risk to COVID.
“When you have an older audience, it’s so important they get vaccinated because they’re the ones who have the most danger, unfortunately from Covid,” Enten said.
(Via Mediaite)