Watching Fox News Can be Bad for Your Health
Research Indicates Exposure to Fox News Led to Less Adherence to Covid-19 Precautions
Founded in 1996 by conservative billionaire Rupert Murdoch, Fox News was branded as a conservative cable news TV channel. In reality, the network was a mouthpiece for the far right republican party. Today, the channel is virtually state run TV, featuring overwhelmingly positive coverage of the republican party and the Trump Administration and demonization of the democratic party. The channel is known for having an anti-scientific bent. The channel has promoted the anti-VAX movement, climate change denial-ism, and more recently the downplay of the risk of Covid-19.
A series of working papers (read them here, here, and here) document the link between Fox News viewership and less compliance with Covid-19 precautionary measures. One study found that in areas with high Fox News viewership, people were less likely to engage in social distancing and bought less products related to the pandemic, such as masks and hand sanitizer. Another study found similar results and concluded that exposure to Fox News resulted in a 1.3 percentage point reduction in the tendency to stay home.
A third study compared the behavior of viewers of two of the most watched Fox News shows; the Tucker Carlson show and the Sean Hannity show. The two shows differed in their initial coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Beginning in early February, Tucker Carlson warned of the potential dangers of Covid-19 while Sean Hannity dismissed the pandemic as a political ploy by the democrats to damage President Trump. Starting in early March, Hannity began to take the threat of Covid-19 more seriously, and by the end of March Hannity’s coverage of the pandemic converged with Carlsons. This study posits that viewers of Hannity engaged in Covid-19 precautionary behaviors (i.e social distancing, self isolating, increased washing of hands, etc.) later than viewers of Carlson. The authors of the study found that higher viewership of Hannity compared to Carlson was related with an increase in Covid-19 cases beginning in March as well as a higher number of deaths.
In the current era of “fake news” and “alternative facts” it has become more important than ever to be able to critically assess sources of news. This makes the popularity of Fox News especially disconcerting. Although the network routinely spews misinformation, Fox News is extremely popular. It is the most watched cable network, with 3.4 million prime time viewers on average. MSNBC and CNN come in a distant second and third, with 1.9 million viewers and 1.4 million viewers respectively. Fox News is especially popular with older people. The median age of Fox News viewers is 68. Over half of all Fox News viewers are older than 65. Fox News initial coverage of the early stages of the global pandemic may have increased morbidity and mortality among this susceptible group.
Recently, Fox News has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. One lawsuit brought by the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics accused Fox News of “knowingly disseminat(ing) false, erroneous, and incomplete information” on COVID-19 that was believed by viewers and hampered “implementation of effective mitigation and countermeasures against the virus.” This lawsuit was thrown out on the grounds that the network was protected by the first amendment which guarantees freedom of press.
Another defamation lawsuit against Tucker Carlson was brought by former playboy model Karen Mcdougal. Mcdougal allegedly had an affair with President Trump between 2006 and 2007. In 2016, The National Enquirer paid Mcdougal a reported $150,000 to bury the story in order to protect Trump who was running for president at the time. Carlson mischaracterized the situation and accused Mcdougal of attempting to extort money from Trump. Carlson stated that two women had "approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he (didn’t) give them money. Now, that sounds like a classic case of extortion.” Fox News argued that the case should be dismissed because the Tucker Carlson show features “opinion commentary” that is “not reasonably understood as being factual.” Apparently the judge hearing this case agreed because the lawsuit was thrown out. Here we see Fox News unwittingly admit the truth. Fox News is not a news channel, but a platform for obnoxious, far-right talking heads to sow misinformation and distrust among the general public.