MARCH 30, 2020
Fox News concerned about “potential legal action” over its misleading coronavirus coverage:
"This could be a legal bloodbath," Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, says
"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."
Sherman noted that polls show Republican views on issues like the coronavirus are "completely different" than "people who gather their news from a wide array of sources."
"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," he said.
Fox viewers are only now "confronting what the rest of us have known since February and early March — is that this is a global pandemic that is unprecedented in American history."
Fox Business host Trish Regan after her conspiratorial rant connecting panic over the coronavirus to impeachment as a sign the network was worried about its early coverage.
"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, and The New York Times reported days ago that the Murdoch family was privately taking the coronavirus seriously," Sherman said.
"The Murdochs, of course, own Fox News. So, they were taken personal steps to protect themselves, while anchors like Trish Regan and Sean Hannity were telling viewers that it's a hoax and putting themselves in potentially mortal danger.
So 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."
___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.
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