Just to follow up on our last post on Media Matters’ Matt Gertz where we predicted he would put more blame on Fox News for increasing vaccine hesitancy than the FDA and CDC pausing the use of the J&J vaccine over a very rare blood clot risk, here he is again blaming Fox News for not doing enough to get people vaccinated:
As I've been saying for months, Fox News has a unique responsibility to get their viewers vaccinated. Their failure to try — and in fact, to mock people who suggest they should bother — is a moral abomination. https://t.co/YbdOMkcVty https://t.co/6WBqbWQmaE
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 14, 2021
For the record, here’s CNN’s Jake Tapper and Sanjay Gupta saying the FDA-CDC move will increase vaccine hesitancy, so it’s not just us:
How will the J&J vaccine pause impact vaccine hesitancy? @drsanjaygupta reports pic.twitter.com/CDOKcZLiSE
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) April 14, 2021
Anyway, CNN’s Oliver Darcy took things one step further and said Tucker Carlson — the “face of the network” — was “recklessly telling viewers that the vaccines might not even actually work”:
Gertz is too generous to Fox here. The network's top stars are not only mocking people who suggest they should help encourage their audience to receive a vaccine, the face of the channel is recklessly telling viewers that the vaccines might not actually even work. https://t.co/4H98fBNUkX
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 14, 2021
Carlson answered this charge on his program last night, saying “For the record, we never for a minute doubted it. We bought all of that stuff completely at face value” and that “The only reason we are asking the question is because the people in charge are acting like it doesn’t work”:
Watch (transcript here via Grabien):
Tucker Carlson responds to Fauci: "If this stuff works, why can't you live like it works? Why are you wearing a mask? Why can’t you eat in a restaurant? And if it doesn’t prevent you from catching the coronavirus, why are we taking it in the first place? Both can't be true." ? pic.twitter.com/aRpmKizjPM
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) April 15, 2021
One thing that may be at play here is that libs believe much more in celebrity endorsements than conservatives. For example, Ivanka Trump released a statement 100% supportive of vaccines but it’s not likely to move the needle at all. Why do Gertz and Darcy think Carlson will have more sway than a Trump?
Not even Ivanka can save the nearly half of Republicans refusing to get vaccinated https://t.co/9gQIMrnJfx
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) April 15, 2021
