Anchors over at ‘Faux News’ spent the greater part of the coronavirus outbreak downplaying the pandemic as a Democratic hoax. Now, network executives fear an onslaught of Fox News lawsuits could be coming to take Trump’s favorite network down.
Current Events
Known for feeding its MAGA conservative viewers with a consistent red meat diet of falsehoods, make-believe, and outright lies, Fox followed their usual playbook just as COVID-19 was reaching US shores by repeating Donald Trump’s claims that the virus was a hoax, that it was all a ploy by the Democrats to hurt his reelection campaign, and that the small number of 15 cases nationally could be down to zero “within a couple of days.”
That was before the pandemic reached more than 780,000 cases globally and nearly 3,000 deaths in the US alone.
Now that the virus has proven to be very real and has shut down the entire world, Fox executives are fearful that the surviving family members of its viewers who have since passed away from COVID-19 could launch a boatload of Fox News lawsuits against the network for knowingly spreading false information that ended in death.
The very real possibility of Fox News lawsuits was first discussed in earnest Sunday by author and Vanity Fair correspondent Gabriel Sherman. During a segment on MSNBC, Sherman suggested that the recent ouster of Fox anchor Trish Regan — who repeatedly said on air that the coronavirus was a scam — was actually an effort by the network to limit their legal liability.
In early March, “Fox News tried to do their original playbook, which was dismiss it as a hoax, say that this is another partisan attempt by Democrats to hurt Donald Trump, and this was the case where they could not prevent reality,” Sherman said. “Fox News is a very powerful media organization, but it cannot stop people from dropping dead.”
He then added:Â “When I’ve been talking to Fox insiders over the last few days, there’s a real concern inside the network that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this. I’ve heard Trish Regan’s being taken off the air is, you know, reflective of this concern that Fox News is in big trouble by downplaying this virus. … I think this is a case where Fox’s coverage — if it actually winds up being proved that people died because of it — this is a new terrain in terms of Fox being possibly held liable for their actions.”
Should Fox News be held liable for the deaths of its viewers who believed the network’s constant drumbeat that the virus was a Democratic hoax and nothing serious, it could take the entire network down.
If the reality of the coronavirus ends up dishing a dose of karma to ‘Faux News’ for a decade of lies and deceit, it would be a sweet wakeup call to the Trumpies to not always believe everything they read and hear.
If the reality of the coronavirus ends up dishing a dose of karma to ‘Faux News’ for a decade of lies and deceit, it would be a sweet wakeup call to the Trumpies to not always believe everything they read and hear. […] – DJ
DJ my friend, you give Trumpies too much credit. If karma actually gives it to Faux News (especially in a court of law), it won’t be a wakeup call at all for those cretins
But it will be Poetic Justice and so I’ll just ‘keep hope alive” that Faux News gets its *just* rewards.