Fox’s vaccine criticism draws attention to its own policy

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By DAVID BAUDERAP Media editor

NEW YORK (AP) Constant criticism of COVID vaccine mandates by numbers on Fox News has drawn attention to his own company’s strict rules on the subject, even from President Joe Biden.

The president was denounced as an authoritarian and chief divider on Fox last week after announcing new efforts to force more Americans to get vaccinated.

When Biden introduced a plan requiring companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated or test negative for COVID at least once a week, he noted that some of the larger companies are already requiring this United. Airlines, Disney, Tyson Foods and even Fox News.

Still, Kevin Lord, executive vice president of human resources at Fox News parent company Fox Corp., said in a note this week that the company will require all unvaccinated employees to be tested every day, not just one day. times a week in order to work in the company’s facilities. The policy was first reported by CNN.

Fox last month demanded that employees report proof of their status, and Lord said more than 90% of full-time employees had been fully immunized.

Fox’s most popular prime-time host, Tucker Carlson, devoted nearly the first 20 minutes of his show Wednesday to Biden’s COVID efforts, saying the rules require people to submit to bullying.

You can’t allow people to force you into drugs that you don’t want or need, Carlson said. It’s up to you to decide what medications you take, period. If you allow people to force you into drugs you don’t want, it’s over. They own you. You are no longer free, period.

He interviewed comedian Jim Breuer, who said he is canceling shows at venues that require members of the public to be vaccinated. Carlson said Breuer spoke like an American. Where are the other American men?

In another interview with Carlson, former CBS News reporter Lara Logan compared Biden’s plans to Marxism and Nazism.

It’s all about control, she said.

Chyrons on screen read No surprise: Biden’s rules are inconsistent, and Fauci wants to ban human interaction.

Fox was attacked from the right by a former employee, Eric Bolling. Now on the conservative Newsmax network, Bolling said Wednesday evening that the network’s leaders were pushing the wrong policies.

So while Fox hosts lament and complain about liberals forcing Americans to get vaccinated, they themselves are doing the same and that’s the classic definition of hypocrisy, he said.

Bolling said he had vaccinated himself, by choice, and Newsmax encouraged his employees to be vaccinated but did not require it. Bolling was ousted from Fox News in 2017 following reports he sent unwanted obscene images to women who worked with him on the network.

A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on Bolling or other critics about a mismatch between company policy and the views expressed by its staff. To be clear, too, while it will require daily COVID testing for the unvaccinated, Fox does not require shots.

No Fox on-air personality has addressed the company’s COVID policies.

CNN is demanding that its employees who work in the office or in the field with co-workers be vaccinated, and last month sacked three people for breaking that rule.

A note sent by Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott last month highlighted Fox’s requirement that employees report their vaccination status. Scott then said masks were optional for people who had been fully vaccinated, but were strongly encouraged in public buildings and required in small places, like broadcast control rooms.

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