These are just a handful of the vile attacks on President Biden on Fox News Thursday night following his speech to the nation announcing new vaccine warrants. Biden’s move has sparked a total declaration of war on the right-wing media. While it is receiving a lot of praise from conventional sources, some analysts even say it still didn’t go far enough, the reality is completely different in the media consumed by Biden’s people. in reality he needs (and has tried) to persuade.
It’s hard to overstate the degree to which right-wing commentators are throwing poison at Biden, the White House, and public health officials after the speech. I pay a lot of attention to these corners of the media ecosystem and it’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it.
“BIDEN IS AN AUTHORITY,” a banner told Fox. “BIDEN DECLARES WAR ON MILLIONS OF AMERICANS,” another Fox banner read. “TOTALITARI TOTAL”, shouted the presentation of the Breitbart homepage. The far right, but massively consumed, Gateway Pundit ripped off the “Biden regime” for its “tyrannical mandates.” The federalist described it as a “fascist movement.” He continued …
This cannot be ignored
I know there is a temptation to ignore these conversationalists. To fine-tune them. To pretend they don’t exist. But his language, which essentially characterizes Biden and public health officials as evil tyrants, is key to understanding why so many Americans don’t protect themselves with a vaccine.
Huge American communities are being lied to and misinformed by media personalities in bad faith and politicians seeking benefits and power. And when you understand the wickedness of the rhetoric that extends to these communities, you also understand that nothing that Biden or Dr. Anthony Fauci or any public health official can win them over. Nothing.
What I imagine is the conclusion that Biden and his administration have drawn. As Biden said in his speech, “We have been patient, but our patience wears out and your refusal [to get vaccinated] it has cost us all. “Steve Schmidt told MSNBC:” We live in a time of misinformation and a time of madness, and that’s enough. Reality is reality and it’s time to end the BS “
Bad faith
Bad faith nonsense has saturated the right-wing media and the Republican Party. A key argument I’ve seen raised is that Biden should not demand vaccines, but simply articulate why they are needed so that people can make the decision on their own. Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a right-wing media star and advocate for this strategy,
he summed it up like this, “The right path is based on explaining, educating and * creating * trust, including explaining the risks / benefits / pros / cons in an honest way so that a person can make their own decision.”
But this has proven not to be a viable option when Republican politicians and conservative media sources of conservatives poison the waters. It’s as if politicians and experts like Crenshaw live in an alternative world where top-rated cable guests don’t sell anti-vaccine rhetoric.
>> Speaking of bad faith: I was surprised at how cheeky Sean Hannity was on his show Thursday night, saying about Biden’s manager, “They created Covid hesitation. They did!” Uh, really Sean?
Feelings, not facts
Brian Stelter writes: “Reading Darcy’s recap on Thursday’s coverage, two things come to mind. First, the crazy reactions to Biden are about feelings, not facts. The most popular links on the right web are not about news. , but to opinions Secondly, it reminds me of what Nicco Mele wrote earlier this week.His “Rule 1” is that “it will get crazier.” If the Biden era seems quiet to you, “make sure,” he says, “it will go crazier.” One of the reasons is, “There are two media ecosystems in this country, which are parallel.” Therefore, Rule 1 remains in place. . ”
“Even Fox News”
During his speech, Biden called Fox News for his hypocrisy against the vaccine, but I thought what he said was a bit misleading. Biden said many companies require employees to be vaccinated or subjected to weekly testing. He defended Fox as an example of this, leading some people to incorrectly say that Fox has a vaccine warrant.
This is not true. Fox does not have a vaccine warrant. Fox has required employees to report their vaccination status to the company. Fox has its own version of a vaccine passport that grants special privileges to those who have reported being vaccinated. And Fox requires some essential employees to get tested weekly, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated. But Fox News doesn’t have a real vaccine warrant, which is important to note.
