MSNBC host Chris Hayes slammed Fox News hosts for seeking ratings by bashing President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing mandates all while working for a network that has a vaccination requirement of its own.
Biden announced earlier this month that businesses with 100 employees or more would be required to mandate COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing, prompting uproar from right-wing media and politicians. It laid the groundwork for a Republican Party fundraising frenzy and was described by one Fox News insider as “great for ratings,” the Daily Beast reported.
Hayes, referring to that article, said that Fox News knew what it was doing.
“The issue rates, so that’s why they’re leaning into it. Despite the fact that it might get their own viewers sick or killed. Despite the fact that Fox News has a vaccine requirement itself,” he said, alongside a screen graphic reading “COVID grifters.”
More than 90% of Fox Corp. employees were fully vaccinated against coronavirus, and those who weren’t would be required to get tested daily, according to a memo sent out by the company’s human resources chief this month. Employees were required to upload their vaccination status on a company system.
In spite of the internal policy, many vaccinated Fox News hosts have publicly decried Biden’s less-strict mandate, casting it as tyrannical and authoritarian.
“Daily testing. That is five times as onerous as the policy Joe Biden proposed that unvaccinated workers be tested weekly,” Hayes said, “the policy they’re railing against day in and day out and calling it tyranny.”
“Notice, by the way, they don’t call out their own employer. They could if they had any courage. If you think it’s tyranny, you could do that on air. But you won’t.
“And I am willing to bet you that nearly all those people who go on air every night and rail against it — they are vaccinated. Their loved ones are vaccinated. They are selling this poison because it is profitable for them. And they truly do not care.”
H/T Mediaite.