Right-Wing Media’s Coronavirus Response: Sycophancy, Racism And Misinformation

LOADING ERROR LOADING Right-wing media outlets and pundits spent weeks dangerously minimizing the severity of the coronavirus and claiming that accurate reports on the outbreak were part of a liberal conspiracy to defame President Donald Trump. Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed that Trump had been on top of the virus “from day one” and “no president has ever done more, acted more quickly to stop the spread of a disease.” Hannity also altered some of his usual dismissive rhetoric about the virus ― he’d previously called coverage of it a “hoax” ― to acknowledge it carries actual dangers. On Saturday, Fox Business told HuffPost in a statement that Regan’s show and one other program will be “on hiatus until further notice” and that resources for those shows will shift to covering the spread of coronavirus “during critical market hours.” Elsewhere in the right-wing media ecosystem, radio host Rush Limbaugh falsely stated that “the coronavirus is the common cold.” At the extreme edge of right-wing media, hosts on conspiracy site InfoWars are peddling fake coronavirus cures to profit off disaster. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has meanwhile fallen back on xenophobia and criticism of “wokeness,” blaming China for the disease and repeating the common white nationalist slogan “diversity is not our strength.” National Review editor Rich Lowry also blamed China and called coronavirus “the first pandemic of the woke era.” Trump has recently hinted at blaming China for the outbreak after initially praising its efforts, and on Wednesday referred to coronavirus as a “foreign virus” while touting his travel ban against China. As Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak worsened in recent days, far-right President Jair Bolsonaro claimed the disease was “not all the mainstream media makes it out to be” and echoed Trump’s talking point that the flu is also deadly.