Media Experts Assail Fox News For Coronavirus Misinformation

A collective of 74 media experts, including the chair of Columbia Journalism School and Pulitzer Prize winner Frances FitzGerald, wrote a letter to Fox executives Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan lambasting Fox News’ coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Viewers of Fox News, including the president of the United States, have been regularly subjected to misinformation,” the statement says, including attempts to downplay the severity of the virus and “recommendations of untested drugs.”

The note praises some Fox journalists for their “solid reporting.” It adds, however, that “Fox News does not clearly distinguish between the authority that should accrue to trained experts, on the one hand, and the authority viewers grant to pundits and politicians for reasons of ideological loyalty.”

Coverage of the pandemic on Fox News has often dovetailed with statements from the president, who initially argued that the COVID-19 virus was not a serious threat. On March 9, for instance, he tweeted that “last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu…. At this moment there are 546 cases of CoronVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” (The White House now says it expects 100,000 to 240,000 people to die from the coronavirus, despite extreme efforts to control its spread.) 

On the same day as Trump’s tweet, Fox star Sean Hannity said on his program that “we are scaring people unnecessarily.” He called the fervor an attempt to “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.” His comments mirrored those of Fox host Trish Regan, who said on March 9 that, “This is yet another attempt to impeach the president.” Regan left the network last week.

A spokesperson for the network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Misinformation is not just affecting average television viewers. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp claimed on Wednesday that he only just learned that the virus can be transmitted by people without symptoms, a fact that has circulated widely in the mainstream press for weeks. Governor Kemp had resisted calls to issue a stay-at-home order for Georgians; on Wednesday he finally reversed course.