Breaking news from Newsweek, everybody:
Coronavirus deaths greater among Fox News viewers that prefer Hannity over Tucker Carlson, study says https://t.co/xXGLPt2Wvb
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 22, 2020
This sounds intriguing! Tell us more!
Viewership of Hannity relative to Carlson’s show was associated with around 30 percent more cases of Covid-19 on March 14 and 21 percent more deaths due to the virus on March 28, according to the study.
The effect is said to have trailed off after that, which the researchers suggest happened because there was a “gradual convergence in scripts” for the shows that started in late February.
The study argues that Hannity began shifting his views as the scale of the impending health crisis became clear in late February. By mid-March, areas with high viewership for Hannity were said to have correlated with areas hit hardest by the pandemic, while those who preferred Tucker Carlson Tonight tended to be located in areas impacted less severely.
No, no. It definitely sounds totally legit and not at all flawed.
Short thread on the ? methodology: https://t.co/4n5vgiOstu https://t.co/KYZ2PLxgjl
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 22, 2020
Read it and weep for the state of our media:
This paper claims to provide evidence that Hannity(as opposed to Tucker Carlson) viewership had a measurable positive impact on coronavirus cases in March. But the timing makes no sense. (1/n) https://t.co/qPLuXy8vpz
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
Recommended
They exploit a relationship between the timing of the sunset in a given TV market and viewership, which peaks a few hours afterwards. This creates variation in viewership of Carlson's and Hannity's shows plausibly unrelated to corona risk factors. (2/5) pic.twitter.com/TcWlW30Bbc
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
Here is where it goes wrong: the claim is that by *mid March*, Hannity's floomerism created 33% more cases in the +1 sd counties for the above instrument, controlling for a whole bunch of demographic variables. (3/5) pic.twitter.com/7gO5IDRV3x
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
You have to do a sanity check: cases lag behavioral differences that lead to infections *by at least a week*. How many Americans were changing their behavior in the first week of March? Very few as Google shows. https://t.co/RIZ9BKpNFI (4/5) pic.twitter.com/OmDfHRrjh3
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
This paper is trying to estimate the effect of watching Hannity on counties that had a handful of cases. Later in March is more plausible, but the coefficient shrinks! This doesn't make sense to me since differences in initial conditions should continue creating more cases.(5/5) pic.twitter.com/PoXDicNlIR
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
PS: academics and mainstream journalists seem to be laser focused on going after Hannity, even when they had a terrible record of downplaying the virus in February or early March. It's pathetic. https://t.co/eojjc6aYjm
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
Now that the paper has breached econ twitter and bluecheck journalists are spreading it, containment is hopeless. https://t.co/KfpvsxXLtV
— Noam (@NoamJStein) April 20, 2020
So … mission accomplished.
They basically started with a conclusion and worked backwards from there.
Given that NYC has highest infection rate and isn't exactly known as FNC territory, why not compare to Maddow viewers? https://t.co/A7imTwVqwH
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 22, 2020
“Sir, if you don’t mind, really quickly before you cross over into the afterlife, my research colleagues and I have just a couple of questions we’d like to ask about your preferred Fox News personalities”
— Jason Mitchell (@1JasonMitchell) April 22, 2020
Killing your viewers is a great strategy for a tv network.
— susan (@susanml10881) April 22, 2020
The virus doesn't check the cable news viewership of the people it kills. Yes, some people might have behaved differently based on what they saw on a show, but the overall impact wd be rather small.
Slow action by certain officials, esp in NYC, clearly had much greater impact.
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 22, 2020
But … but … Fox News!
Worst headline of the year goes to…
— Jason Crouch (@jasoncrouch) April 22, 2020
Is this a parody account?
— mallen2010 (@mallen2010) April 22, 2020
What the hell is wrong with you people
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) April 22, 2020
How much time have you got?
you guys are sick
— Glenn Amurgis (@gamurgis) April 22, 2020
Last word to Ted Cruz:
MSM: You know that little voice that says, “this is wrong. Decent people don’t do this”? Next time, listen to it. https://t.co/PqXNMPK3Pc
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 22, 2020
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