CNN highlights Fox News’ almost daily anti-vaccine campaign amid quietly implementing its own vaccine and testing requirements
Victor Blackwell: “Two dates, August 29, September 4. They're significant dates for Fox News, they're the only days in the last six months when the network did not undermine COVID vaccines on-air”
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From the October 6, 2021, edition of CNN's CNN Newsroom with Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell
VICTOR BLACKWELL (CO-ANCHOR): Two dates, August 29, September 4. They're significant dates for Fox News, they're the only days in the last six months when the network did not undermine COVID vaccines on-air. That's according to new research from the progressive group Media Matters. And despite the fact that vaccines are highly effective at preventing death and severe illness, Fox News air has been filled with vaccine misinformation and false claims and inflammatory rhetoric.
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-ANCHOR): The study also finds that Fox did not mind the vaccines when Donald Trump was president. They only ramped up their anti-vaccine stance once President Biden was elected. Here is just some of their disinformation in the past month.
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CAMEROTA: I don't know if any single one of those words was true. Also, don't forget that Fox TV itself has very strict vaccine rules for its employees. More than 90% of employees there are vaccinated because there's a mandate that they have to be before going into the building.
BLACKWELL: And we talked about the misinformation online on social media, that's the loop. Some of the clips will be then shared, and then whatever is generated on social media then comes and bubbles back up on prime time, and it's a circle for the same people telling the same lie over and over.
CAMEROTA: And it affects public health, and again, I just — I want to underscore, they didn't do it when Donald Trump was touting the vaccines, only when Biden was. That tells you it's not about the vaccine. That's the takeaway.