Wednesday, The View co-host Sunny Hostin blamed Fox News and conservative media misinformation for the recent spikes in COVID cases across the country. As Joy Behar also blamed all Republicans for misinformation on the virus, Meghan McCain tore into her co-hosts’ arguments, the media, and public health officials for giving protesters a pass while blaming Republicans and conservative media.
After Joy Behar claimed that Republicans wearing masks was “politically motivated” and that the Trump campaign was “petrified” of the anti-Trump “Lincoln Project,” Meghan McCain interjected with this snark: “No one is worried about the Lincoln Project.” Behar advised their audience to vote all Republicans out of office because they were destroying the country by not following coronavirus guidelines.
After that partisan swipe, Whoopi Goldberg then prompted Sunny Hostin to continue blaming conservatives for the coronavirus spikes in several states. Protesters and rioters got a pass as usual, while Hostin blamed Fox News and conservative media outlets:
I don't think there's going to be a cultural shift, and I think -- I don't think there's going to be a cultural shift because it depends on where people are getting their information from. Will people get their information from Dr. Fauci or will they get their information from where they consume their media? There was a really interesting article in The Washington Post over the weekend on Saturday where there have been three separate studies that have determined that conservative media misinformation may have intensified the severity of the pandemic, and what was most interesting to me according to one of the studies is the infection and mortality rates are higher in places where Fox News' Sean Hannity reaches the largest audience. What was also fascinating is that even Laura Ingraham just yesterday said in reaction to Dr. Fauci's pronouncement that we are in dire straits right now. We could have 100,000 cases a day. She suggested without offering any evidence to back up her claim, that Fauci is working for Joe Biden, and she called Dr. Fauci ‘Dr. Doom’ and basically said, you know, for all we know, he could be Joe's running mate. So when you look at that, and people are listening to these news personalities, they're reading and they're consuming this type of conservative media that's still going to be downplaying wearing masks, still downplaying the numbers, I don't think we're going to see this huge cultural shift because as Joy just said, this has become political, this is not about public health anymore unfortunately.
Blaming Fox News and conservative media for the virus has been the media’s modus operandi for months now. But Meghan McCain tore into her co-hosts’ claims, noting again their double standards:
“The narrative continues to confuse me. Republicans are the devil. Fox News is the devil, but protesters for “Pride” and protesters for Black Lives Matter, it's fine, and the pandemic doesn't exist,” she snarked. As Whoopi objected, McCain continued to defend what she said as how the media’s narrative is coming across. She added:
As much as you want to trash Fox News, Tucker Carlson has the highest approval ratings and numbers in Fox News history right now partly because he's saying in a much more eloquent way what I am saying right now. There’s a lot of anger and frustration about the hypocrisy. And we can say forget it here and we can talk about the Lincoln project and say vote all Republicans out but it's making the culture war divide even further, and maybe that's what we want.
Whoopi responded, denying ever giving protesters a pass on the virus, even though that’s exactly what The View has done, by repeatedly going after red states for reopening while praising protesters. In fact, Whoopi has only ever said on the show, that protesters needed to be staying home as well, in response to McCain calling out the double standard.
McCain went on to call out public health officials for not being more adamant that protesters shouldn’t be out protesting in the middle of a pandemic. "When someone like me is frustrated and when it feels like the people in place, and places of power like Dr. Fauci are not going on TV and screaming bloody murder about the dangers of this, and we're seeing spikes everywhere, I understand why there's frustration."
She also called out Joy Behar for suggesting conservatives were the only ones not following guidelines: “Republicans not wearing masks is just intellectually dishonest,” she stated. Whoopi shot back that no one was claiming that but supposedly Fox News had directly told people not to wear masks. There was more cross-talk and arguing as Whoopi eventually cut to a break. As usual, the argument was forgotten once they returned from commercial.
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