Just a day before Fox News host Tucker Carlson would go on his program to cast doubt on the recently-approved Coronavirus vaccines, his boss, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, became one of the first to get vaccinated.
Murdoch is 80-years-old, so he falls into the second-tier priority group over in the United Kingdom. He got his first shot of the vaccine on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, Carlson went on his show to sneer at the “glitzy” show-biz like campaign around the Pfizer (and now Moderna) vaccines, accusing everyone from celebrities to healthcare workers and tech companies of “patronizing” the American people with their support of the inoculation push.
“So, how are the rest of us supposed to respond to a marketing campaign like this? Well, nervously,” Carlson said after insinuating a nurse’s rare allergic reaction to the shot was somehow indicative of a larger problem. “Even if you are strongly supportive of vaccines, and we are, even if you recognize how many millions of lives have been saved over the past 50 years by vaccines, and we do, it all seems a bit much, it feels false, because it is, it’s too slick.”
Tucker’s boss doesn’t feel the same way, and more than a few people on Twitter are chafing at the hypocrisy that Fox News is putting on display here.
Awesome that Rupert Murdoch, whose network has been keeping their offices closed while telling people to get back to work, and whose most popular host last night told people to be skeptical of the vaccine…was one of the first to get the vaccine.
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) December 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/OhOEvie/status/1339994905544822786
Just in case you wondered what RUPERT MURDOCH was doing while Fox News hosts like TUCKER CARLSON were telling millions of viewers not to trust the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/Do4kFz5XP6
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 18, 2020
https://twitter.com/JRehling/status/1339998309612548096
https://twitter.com/MattGarrahan/status/1339962158491316224
Oh Lookie, the guy that founded a "news" org to lie to people about facts and science is first in line to get the vaccine developed by facts and science. #RupertMurdoch. https://t.co/8dWs7xP1q9
— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) December 18, 2020
Rupert Murdoch: "Have fox news tell everyone how great America is and how bad the vaccine is"
Also Rupert Murdoch: Goes to Europe to get a vaccine.— your sad aunt Carol (@MichaelCFurr) December 18, 2020
And while people are fuming, maybe someone will take Carlson to task for disrespecting Ian McKellen, another older celebrity who volunteered to be publicly vaccinated this week. He’s been knighted by the Queen of England, so he’s Sir McKellen, not “the Gandalf guy.”