Horowitz: Right-Wing Media Misinformation on Coronavirus Negatively Impacts Their Audience

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Sean Hannity PHOTO: Fox News Bio photo

The initial downplaying of the seriousness of the Coronavirus and the stream of misinformation communicated by the conservative media echo chamber, with highly-rated Fox prime time opinion hosts, such as Sean Hannity among the worst offenders, resulted in people who receive their news mainly from these outlets being less informed and more likely to dismiss the threat of this virus than the rest of us, according to a recent Pew Research national poll

Even among Republicans who as a whole are much more likely to think that the virus was developed in a lab, that a vaccine will be immediately available and that the media is exaggerating the danger than the rest of the electorate, the sub-set that receives their news mainly from the right-wing media echo chamber are more misinformed and less concerned.

For example, the Pew poll report states, “When it comes to the origin of the virus, 40% of Republicans in a right-leaning audience news bubble say COVID-19 was most likely created intentionally in a lab, far higher than the 28% of Republicans who get political news from outlets with both right-leaning and mixed audiences and 25% of Republicans who get political news only from outlets without right-leaning audiences. (These differences appear even when the analysis is limited to conservative Republicans.),”

Similarly, one-in-three Republicans who are part of the right-leaning audience news bubble group mistakenly think that a vaccine will be available in a few months: as opposed to about one-in-four Republicans who get their news from mixed sources

Most importantly, given its potential impact on behavior, the Pew Poll report states, “Close to two-thirds of Republicans who turn only to right-leaning-audience sources (63%) say the news media have greatly exaggerated the risks of the virus. That compares with 52% of Republicans who get news both from outlets whose audiences lean right politically and outlets whose audiences are mostly mixed or lean left and with 42% of Republicans who don’t turn to any outlets with right-leaning audience.”

This poll documents the real-world consequences of the right-wing media’s nearly slavish amplification of President Trump’s messaging without regard to how far it may depart from reality. Even when the subject is as serious as a global pandemic, conservative opinion hosts, such as Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Rush Limbaugh, have repeatedly put boosting the president’s political fortunes ahead of telling their audience anything approximating the truth

As the president in the last week or so has belatedly shifted his rhetoric and tone to acknowledge the seriousness of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the tone of his media enablers has predictably shifted accordingly. It is likely that those who receive their information nearly exclusively from right-wing media sources, as well as Republicans generally, will begin to catch up with the rest of the public on the seriousness of the threat and a more accurate understanding of the basic facts. Since this poll was completed on March 16, mainly before the president’s welcome change of direction occurred, it may well already be starting to happen. This is, of course, a positive development.

But the initial and dangerous downplaying of this virus by most of the conservative media serves as an object lesson in the problems of believing that facts don’t really matter and that what is most important is defending the president and attacking his critics using whatever means necessary. I hope this will be a true teaching moment, but unfortunately, I doubt there will be much learning behavior.

{image_2}Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island