Progressive pundit launches campaign against Fox News: "Something more needed to be done"

Dean Obeidallah, radio host and regular contributor to Salon, filed a complaint on Tuesday against Fox News for coordinating a "misinformation campaign" around COVID, suggesting that the channel has systematically downplayed coronavirus and sowed doubt around the efficacy of the vaccine. The complaint, first announced in an MSNBC op-ed, alleges that Fox News violated the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, a December law which "​​makes it unlawful under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act for any person, partnership, or corporation to engage in a deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce associated with the treatment, cure, prevention, mitigation, or diagnosis of COVID–19." Obeidallah's legal action comes on the heels of a bombshell Media Matters report from last week, which found that Fox News has "relentlessly undermined the effort to get Americans vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease." "I felt that given the spike in COVID cases and deaths – plus the report by Media Matters that came out Friday that quantified the lies by Fox News over the past two weeks on the vaccine – that something more needed to be done than simply yelling about it on my SiriusXM radio show," Obeidallah told Salon over email. "So I did research over the weekend and discovered the recently enacted COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, which appears perfectly designed to address Fox News deceptive information," he added.