Hypocrisy

Locally, I know Fox News and I have done pool coverage with the Fox 31 crew, finding them to be reliable and very nice to work with. Fox News at the national level, however, is many things; mouthpiece of a twice-impeached president, marketing arm of a major political party, purveyor of nonsense, and possessed of a reliably slanted view on most of what happens in the country and the world. As a truth-teller, it leaves a lot to be desired.

So it was interesting to receive a notice put out by Fox Media Corporate on Tuesday afternoon announcing the company is requiring all employees to enter their vaccination status into a central database — and requiring masking in confined spaces.

They have reinstated their testing program for essential employees (whether vaccinated or not, which must be to avoid shaming anti-vaxers) encouraging an optional face mask policy for vaccinated people and encouraging unvaccinated people to wear them in all spaces of their New York office, and require all employees and vendors to complete daily screenings before reporting to work.

Really.

So the company that first played down COVID-19 as a hoax, turned a disease into a political rallying cry, touted fake cures from hydroxychloroquine to bleach, and monkey brain elixirs, dissed the vaccines, disrespected people who got the vaccines, refused to support social distancing steps to slow the spread, made fun of face masks and those wearing them, and has recently mounted a full-frontal attack on schools for trying to mandate mask-wearing, is now taking sensible steps — because why? To reduce its insurance liability?  To cover its corporate behind? Has it found religion — or science?

Or just possible, has Fox News finally realized that this thing is real, the pandemic is not over, and that the real hard work of beating back COVID-19 may still be ahead of us? If so — wouldn’t it be good to tell their viewers?