Meghan McCain is in the midst of her final two weeks at The View, and while she’s seems notably more subdued than usual, the conservative co-host still managed to stay on brand by diving on a grenade for Fox News on Monday morning. During a segment on the pressing issue of vaccine hesitancy, and who’s to blame for American’s refusing to get the COVID vaccine despite cases beginning to rise from the Delta variant, McCain swatted away arguments that Fox News is responsible. McCain even went so far as to claim that she’s never heard anyone on the network discourage getting the vaccine, but she did add admit she could be wrong. (She was.)
“Fox & Friends is like the mothership of MAGA media, and if someone like Steve Doocy is warning people to get the vaccine, I think that’s effective,” McCain said. “Not everybody on Fox News is saying don’t get the vaccine. I actually haven’t heard anyone say that, but maybe I’m just misinformed.”
You can see McCain remarks at the 3:30 mark below:
WHO’S TO BLAME FOR RISING COVID CASES? After Pres. Biden blamed social media platforms for allowing anti-vaccine misinformation to spread and Dr. Fauci said conservative media and politicians are setting America back, the co-hosts weigh in. https://t.co/fErzFl83RE pic.twitter.com/VdVXZt6aFW
— The View (@TheView) July 19, 2021
In McCain’s defense, she is correct that Doocy did break from his Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade and encourage viewers to get vaccinated. However, the reason Doocy’s stance was so remarkable is that Fox News does have a significant problem with promoting vaccine disinformation, particularly from Tucker Carlson, and McCain’s co-host Sunny Hostin came prepared with the cold hard facts. Via Mediaite:
“When you look at the stats, Fox News has played a key role in disseminating anti-vaccine propaganda,” she proclaimed, before reporting subjective statistics on their coverage reported by liberal media watchdog Media Matters. “Media Matters found that between June 28th and July 12th, Fox aired 129 segments about coronavirus vaccine, and 60% either undermined or downplayed immunization efforts.”
Hostin then joined the chorus of media figures who want to know the vaccination status for Fox News’ hosts. “It’s just very sad when you think about it because I would bet my bottom dollar that every single of those Fox News hosts like Laura Ingraham, like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, I bet you they’re vaccinated, yet they are still pushing this propaganda.”
(Via The View on Twitter, Mediaite)