Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway calls for press to ignore science behind mask-wearing
Asked about mask-wearing, Hemingway says “I think the press take too much of a side on the issue”
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From the October 4, 2020, edition of Fox News' Mediabuzz
HOWARD KURTZ (HOST): Let me play for you, Mollie, a snippet of Tuesday's debate in Cleveland. Didn't get that much attention at the time but we can see now why it seems more relevant. Roll it.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from them and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen.
(VIDEO ENDS)
KURTZ: So the media are repeatedly making the mask-wearing, the mask messaging a major issue. You mentioned Virginia Governor Ralph Northam getting the virus, despite the fact that the always wore a mask. So do you think there's too much press attention to this question of masks?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Just in general, I think the press take too much of a side on this issue on whether the response to the global pandemic is to shut down the country, ban children from schools, keep people from going to church, have people be masked constantly, versus this idea that you do want to respond with appropriate concern to the pandemic without destroying your life.
The media are clearly on the same side of this issue as Joe Biden, just as they are on the same side of every issue with Joe Biden. And that comes through loud and clear. There is a fundamental debate about how to respond to something like this, whether you put your entire country on hold, whether you stay in your house and you don't campaign, whether you -- who you think is essential and who you think is not, or how you respond to these things.
And we just have not seen in any way a good debate on that topic within the media. They have all agreed that they think that sort of drastic lockdowns and very serious measures, keeping children out of school, are the right thing to do even though there is not a lot of scientific evidence in support of this, although they assert that there is.
KURTZ: Yeah, it's the primary debate in the country right now, I would say.