Fox fixates on Fauci instead of numerous current health crises
Fox News is devoting almost no coverage to growing cases of measles, outbreaks of cyclospora and Ebola, or the Trump administration's cuts to Medicare subsidies, while spending over 9 hours instead fixated on. . .
Fox News is devoting almost no coverage to growing cases of measles, outbreaks of cyclospora and Ebola, or the Trump administration's cuts to Medicare subsidies, while spending over 9 hours instead fixated on relitigating Dr. Anthony Fauci's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci, who helped lead the U. S. response to COVID-19, was subpoenaed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to testify in a Senate hearing this week, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment. Paul has long claimed Fauci lied about the origins of the COVID-19 virus despite scientific consensus that the virusoccurred naturally. NPR reported, “Days before Wednesday's hearing, Paul released over 1,000 pages of Fauci's private diary entries about his daily life between December 2019 and 2022, accusing him of covering up the origins of COVID-19. ”Fox pounced on the story, dedicating 9 hours and 10 minutes to coverage of Fauci’s diary and Senate hearing from Monday through Thursday and nearly 3 hours to carrying the hearing live on-air. Meanwhile, multiple ongoing health care crises received less than 1 minute combined in the same time frame. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention haverecordedmore measles cases in the United States in the past 18 months than in the previous 25 years combined. At the same time, vaccination rates are decreasing across the country. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has “halted funding for vaccine hesitancy research, downplayed the risks of measles and spearheaded a hunt for evidence that vaccines are unsafe,”according toThe New York Times. The only mention of rising measles cases on Fox News this week was during a segment about Fauci in which host Jesse Wattersmentionedhigher measles cases as a way to blame the COVID-19 pandemic, and Fauci’s response, for children not getting vaccinated. In total, Fox spent less than 10 seconds discussing measles. An outbreak of the explosive diarrhea-causing parasite cyclospora hasspreadto 45 states, sickening thousands. Former employees of the CDC said the country's response to the parasite is “being severely hampered by personnel cuts at the agency,”according toWIRED. Fox spent less than 30 seconds this week covering the outbreak, with both mentions coming during jokes on Gutfeld!(Fox medical contributor Dr. Drew Pinsky previously dismissed the outbreak,tellingnetwork host Will Cain on July 13 that “to be honest, we shouldn't even be reporting it on your show” and “people don't need to panic about this at all. ”)The fastest-spreading outbreak of Ebola, which has no treatments or vaccines, is currently devastating Congo. The outbreak has “killed more people at a quicker rate than any previous outbreak, including in 2014-2016 when 28,000 cases were reported,”according toABC News. Fox spent less than 20 seconds covering this. And the Medicare Part D subsidy program, which keeps prescription premiums low for its estimated 23 million beneficiaries, is being ended by the Trump administrationa year earlierthan expected. People enrolled in the plan could stand to pay nearly 50% more for drug coverage without it, Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF, told NPR. Fox did not discuss this at all.