Fans of Sean Hannity might want to start tuning into Tucker Carlson. According to a new study from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, “greater viewership of ‘Hannity’ relative to ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic.”
So how can your TV viewing affect your health? Well, it all has to do with the information you receive from the TV programs you watch. The study found that Hannity’s show is guilty of putting out more misinformation about the virus than Carlson’s show. So if you are following misinformation about the virus, you might just get sick faster than TV viewers who are receiving accurate information and guidelines.
Over the last few weeks, Fox News host Sean Hannity has been criticized for espousing President Donald Trump’s initial messages of downplaying the threat posed by the coronavirus. Fellow Fox News host Tucker Carlson, however, has been praised for convincing the president to take the pandemic seriously.
“Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February,” the researchers wrote in the working paper.
Just look at statements made by the two hosts in February. During that month, Hannity claimed that “zero people in the United States have died from the coronavirus.” Carlson, on the other hand, warned viewers that the virus could kill 1 million people nationwide.
For the study, researchers polled more than 1,000 Fox News viewers. The study revealed that Carlson’s viewers were more likely to change their behavior sooner than Hannity’s viewers.
“We find that Hannity’s viewers on average changed their behavior in response to the coronavirus five days later than other Fox News viewers, while Carlson’s viewers changed behavior three days earlier than other Fox News viewers,” the paper said.
Researchers compared the death rate in counties that favored either host, finding “approximately 30 percent more COVID-19 cases” in areas that preferred Hannity than those that watched Carlson, Salon reported.
“Already by mid-March, we see a statistically significant difference — that there are greater caseloads in places that favor Hannity over Tucker,” researcher David Yanagizawa-Drott told The Chicago Tribune. “Then weeks later, we see a similar trajectory increase for deaths.”
Many media outlets are trying to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation. A group of 74 journalism professors sent a letter to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch urging the network to stop spreading “misinformation” about the virus.
“The misinformation that reaches the Fox News audience is a danger to public health. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that your misreporting endangers your own viewers — and not only them, for in a pandemic, individual behavior affects significant numbers of other people as well,” the letter said.
The journalists called Fox News’s behavior inexcusable.
“Inexcusably, Fox News has violated elementary canons of journalism. In so doing, it has contributed to the spread of a grave pandemic. Urgently, therefore, in the name of both good journalism and public health, we call upon you to help protect the lives of all Americans — including your elderly viewers — by ensuring that the information you deliver is based on scientific facts.”
One Miami journalist was so frustrated by the GOP’s approach to the pandemic, she tweeted that open beaches should “thin the ranks” of the GOP.
“Packed beaches should work nicely to thin the ranks of Trump/DeSantis/Gimenez supporters in #Florida who value money over health,” Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago wrote in a now-deleted tweet, according to the Federalist, which captured an image of the message.
Santiago apologized for the tweet which referred to Trump, Republican Gov. Ron Desantis, and Republican Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Fox News reported.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
Some experts say the misinformation is ramping up now that protesters are taking to the streets demanding an end to COVID-19 lockdowns — with Trump’s encouragement. White House economic adviser Stephen Moore, even compared the protestors to civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
Many wonder why Trump is backing small numbers of protesters when most health experts say reopening now is a bad idea.
“Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans — including half of Republicans — are more worried that restrictions will be lifted too soon than that they will be kept in place too long,” The New York Times reported.
In a New York Times opinion column entitled, “The Right Sends In the Quacks,” Paul Krugman discussed how COVID-19 highlights the conservative reliance on fake experts. “There has historically been a strong association between right-wing extremism and grifting, including snake-oil and get-rich-quick schemes,” Krugman wrote.
