Some now place Fox News in the center of a Coronavirus disinformation campaign, but Tucker Carlson proves them wrong
Now, the Left is trying to make Fox News the official scapegoat for the Coronavirus pandemic. How does this make sense? Well, it doesn’t.
Mainstream media outlets are criticizing Fox News for “downplaying” the severity of the Coronavirus.
Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson not only proved these critics wrong, but he also proved that these critics were, in fact, the guilty party.
In his opening monologue on Monday night, Carlson took the time to share the headlines of major papers — including Vox, the New York Times and the Washington Post — from back in late January and early February, all of which stated that the Coronavirus was nothing to fear. Vox’s article even claimed that the virus wasn’t deadly, which we now know to be a lie.
In the segment, Carlson reminded Americans that, “None of these people cared about you, they didn’t care about protecting public health or sharing accurate information, they cared about feeling virtuous. They put their wokeness above your life as they always do and always will.”
Carlson also pulled a video segment of his show from late January, in which he reported on the Coronavirus, stating that the virus “looks like it could be a global epidemic, maybe even pandemic.”
In the wake of this epidemic, it is troubling to see just how far the mainstream media will go to protect the Left as well as themselves.
The Coronavirus began to make headlines during the time of the Senate impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump when much of the mainstream media was too busy focusing solely on ending Trump’s presidential career to focus on anything else.
In January, Trump did restrict travel to and from China as a first step in protecting the U.S. from the disease; however, many then (and still now) criticized this decision, using it as a tool to once again label the Trump Administration as racist.
Here is a link to one of the many articles critiquing Trump’s initial travel restriction:
Perspective | Why we should be wary of an aggressive government response to coronavirus
While we can be critical that more could have been done by the Trump Administration at this point in late January, as the virus was already proving to be a real threat, Carlson’s monologue reminds us that much of the media wasn’t taking the virus as seriously as it should have been. So, if we are arguing that Trump did not do enough in the wake of the pandemic, we should also argue that neither did the media. Of course, Trump still acted to protect his citizens. What did the mainstream media do? Critique Trump for protecting his country.
To understand the greater picture, it is also important to understand that the lies spread by the Chinese Communist Party are what hurt the world the most. Had the U.S. received accurate information up front, perhaps our government could have instituted harsher restrictions earlier on. However, one could say that it is the job of America’s journalists to seek the truth. So, why didn’t they? Again, identity politics got in the way.
Fox News did not spread disinformation and should not be the new scapegoat for major media outlets in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The New York Times is right, in a way. Did Fox spend much of early March reporting on the Left’s consistent attacks against Trump? Yes. But this shouldn’t be a problem, because the reporting done by Fox News anchors in early March was accurate. And, unlike the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other major papers, the network’s anchors spent months informing the country about the spread of the Coronavirus. Perhaps the New York Times should examine its own editors and reporters before pointing the finger at Fox News.
We can only progress by reporting the truth and holding each other accountable, and Fox News is doing just that.
PHOTO: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Politicon
