In 2010 over dinner, the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, told right-wing publisher and festering boil on the world's ass Rupert Murdoch that his Fox "News" "was an incredibly destructive force in our society." That was over a year into President Obama's first term, when he faced the headwinds of a wounded but powerful right-wing movement coalescing behind the "Tea Party," a concoction of the reactionary Koch empire. Cheering on and fueling the right-wingers was their go-to media outlet, Fox "News." At the time, Jobs had no idea what lay ahead: intense Rethuglican obstruction, racism / birtherism, and right-wing grievance politics that led to the rise of demagogue and pathological liar Donald "Impeached Forever" Trump.
Fast forward to 2020, and Trump's incompetence, narcissism and unfitness for office have resulted in a totally botched response from the outset to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S.'s greatest health crisis in history. Researchers have looked at the impact of the media in helping the public to be informed and to properly prepare themselves, and, no real surprise, they found that the Fox "News" channel has contributed to the spread of the virus. From the Washington Post's Margaret Sullivan:
"Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight — yes, data-driven evidence — behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread.
Dangerously duped.
The studies 'paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others,' wrote my colleague Christopher Ingraham in an analysis last week.
Here’s the reality, now backed by numbers:Fox's role in disseminating false ("fake") information, dangerous "cures", and a view that the coronavirus was just "a flu" that would disappear, just like their cult leader said, contributed to their viewers' exposure to the virus, something we're dealing with now in its resurgence.
Those who relied on mainstream sources — the network evening newscasts or national newspapers that President Trump constantly blasts as 'fake news' — got an accurate assessment of the pandemic’s risks. Those were the news consumers who were more likely to respond accordingly, protecting themselves and others against the disease that has now killed more than 123,000 in the United States with no end in sight.
Those who relied on Fox or, say, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, came to believe that vitamin C was a possible remedy, that the Chinese government created the virus in a lab, and that government health agencies were exaggerating the dangers in the hopes of damaging Trump politically, a survey showed." (our emphasis)
Steve Jobs's view of Murdoch's Fox propaganda operation was prescient. Ten years later, it's a matter of the nation's health and security, of life and death.
