COVID-19 and the Politics of American Journalism
The shifting tone of Coronavirus coverage in the media.
The coronavirus was first reported in the United States on January 15 in Washington from a patient who returned from Wuhan, China.
The press was alerted six days later when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a public statement on January 21. Since then the virus has become a worldwide pandemic, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands of people.
Various outlets have covered the virus differently, and some have changed their tone significantly in the past couple of months.
A poll from The Center of Infectious Disease Research and Policy shows that the party you affiliate with and the news stations you watch plays a major role in how severe you believe the virus is.
The shifting coverage has come with harsh criticisms, and some coverage conflicts with previous coverage, resulting in people unsure of what information to believe.
Fox News, a conservative news outlet that at times seems to peddle conspiracy theories, ran with the idea that the coronavirus was a hoax, or somehow a way for Democrats to try and impeach President Donald Trump.
Following Trish Regan’s monologue, Fox took her off the air and eventually cut ties after severe backlash from the public over her misguided comments.
Fox hosts later eased back from the hoax claims, however, the damage was done and a lawsuit was filed against them for pushing the narrative.
The ability for a major news channel to allow this to get past editors and producers shows a fundamental problem: not just with the content they put on the air, but also the culture of the news organization.
Regan downplayed the seriousness of the virus itself and tried to push a false narrative. She showed clips of Democrats and alleged “leftists” saying that Trump appeared to have no real plan in place to combat coronavirus.
Fox News also came under fire for host Ainsley Earhardt talking about how her friends can’t get their nails or hair done, while still acknowledging people were dying from the COVID-19 virus.
In June, coronavirus death predictions from just a few months ago were surpassed. Those projections, meant to encompass a year of coronavirus, were passed in just six months. We may even pass some of the higher death projections by October.
While Fox News took its time to catch up to speed, news organizations like CNN and MSNBC put a counter for the confirmed cases and deaths resulting from COVID-19 in the US and worldwide.
CNN held town halls with some of the leading doctors and government officials, such as Dr. Fauci and Governor Andrew Cuomo, in an attempt to help educate Americans on how to stay safe during this global pandemic.
MSNBC has done special reports on the virus and has a web page dedicated to all the latest news regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both organizations have appeared to try and provide good advice on potential dangers people face at this time and steps to try to flatten the curve.
Both stations also put up maps early indicating where the virus was most prevalent and the expected climb of the Coronavirus across the country.
But the three stations mentioned have each had similar missteps. All three networks have at some point called it either the Wuhan Coronavirus, some version of Chinese Coronavirus, or as Trump refers to it “Kung Flu”.
Using the terminology that it came from Wuhan can lead to people being more overtly racist to Asian Americans here in the US.
Fox News ran an article and carried the idea that the Coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan and that it was spread to the public as a means of controlling the population. They ran this theory on either poor sources or not verifiable information which also led to more people becoming fearful of Asians in America leading to higher incidents of racists outbursts.
The coverage of COVID-19 has reemerged in the press following the first two weeks of protests regarding police brutality following the death of George Floyd and the coverage you receive is completely decided by the network you pay attention to.
Brit Hume, a Fox News host, criticized Biden for wearing a mask and called it “completely absurd”.
On CNN, they continue to bash Trump for reopening the economy while millions are out of work and Congress refuses to pass more legislation providing funds to struggling families that are watching their business bankrupt and homes foreclosed.
The different coverage has led to people not getting the full picture all the way around, so people that watch Fox do not see the reason for wearing the cloth masks and people that watch CNN are being led to believe that reopening the economy is wrong even though plenty of families are struggling to pay for food and housing.
