Media Matters' Andrew Lawrence talks to SiriusXM's John Fugelsang about Fox News' bogus COVID-19 cures and vaccine misinformation
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Media Matters' Andrew Lawrence explains Fox News' bogus COVID-19 cures and vaccine misinformation
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From the October 5, 2021, edition of Sirius XM's Tell Me Everything with John Fugelsang
JOHN FUGELSANG (HOST): I cannot believe this study that the profoundly good people at Media Matters have done -- 90 plus examples of times that bogus or questionable at best quack cures for COVID-19 were promoted by Fox News. I guess the most obvious question is when did you all get the idea it would be a good idea to have this study?
And actually at what point are there so many quack cures on Fox News that you decide we had better make a list of all the quack cures they promoted?
ANDREW LAWRENCE: So, you know, it's really, really funny that you ask that question. So, it was really when the ivermectin thing started coming up.
…
Fox News -- there was a big hydroxychloroquine push, which you touched on a little bit in your introduction, then it moved to ivermectin. We were sitting around thinking, like, these are the two that people know about, but there's been a lot more that Fox News has been pushing. And look, some of these, they’re not like horse paste. They’re not resulting in people calling poison control centers and stuff like that.
Some of this stuff might have benefits but what we wanted to do is we wanted to contrast that, the way that they’re pushing these preventatives and prophylactics and treatments versus the way that they talk about the vaccine which is that it’s killing thousands of people, they, the government is going to force you to take it and then what comes next? They might make you to take psychotropic drugs and stuff like that just because you’re a conservative.
FUGELSANG: Right.
LAWRENCE: They might try to brainwash you through drugs. And so that’s what we were trying to do is contrast the way that they talk about vaccines versus the way they're talking about these things -- and like I said, there are some things on this list that do have some benefits. But then they’re also pushing vaping as a way to prevent getting COVID or bear bile I think was my favorite one.