CNN’s Jim Acosta predicts Fox viewer ‘whiplash’ as vaccine misinformation gives way to science
Acosta #Acosta
CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday decried Fox News’ vaccine pivoting and mixed messages, saying it was enough to give the network’s viewers “whiplash.”
“Sixteen months into this pandemic, and it’s time for an injection of the truth — and a rejection of the lies about the vaccine,” Acosta said on “CNN Newsroom.” “If you’re watching COVID coverage on Fox News these days you may have come down with a case of whiplash. Some anchors like Tucker Carlson are spreading anti-vax hysteria, while others like Sean Hannity are finally dealing with the reality that vaccines are saving lives.”
“That’s great, except Hannity walked back those comments a few days later, saying he never told anyone to get a vaccine,” Acosta said, segueing into a Brian Kilmeade riff on “Fox & Friends” in which he compared getting vaccinated to cliff diving.
“If you didn’t get a vaccination, that’s your choice,” Kilmeade said on-air, then pointing to his co-anchors to indicate that he and they had all made the choice to get vaxxed. “If you want to go cliff diving this weekend you don’t have to check with me.”
One of his co-anchors pointed out that more than 99% of the people dying from COVID are unvaccinated, and Kilmeade interjected, “It’s their choice.”
The screen returned to Acosta.
“He just said something about cliff diving,” Acosta said. “Cliff diving? If you cliff dive, and you die, YOU die. Just you. You don’t take out the rest of your family.”
Video: ‘We’re in this together’: Fox News hosts urge Americans to get the vaccine (FOX News)
‘We’re in this together’: Fox News hosts urge Americans to get the vaccine
SHARE
SHARE
TWEET
SHARE
Click to expand
UP NEXT
This makes Kilmeade’s analogy “a big belly flop,” Acosta continued. “Many of the most alarming spikes in COVID cases around the country are in areas with low vaccination rates. Nearly all of the patients being hospitalized with COVID right now are unvaccinated. That’s right. People who had access to the vaccines, but didn’t get the shot, are now sick. And many of them are dying.”
He pointed out that it’s mostly in Trump-leaning states, “where people choose to get their information from outlets like Fox News. The same network that has been peddling lies about COVID for months, while demonizing this nation’s top scientists.”
That flowed into a clip of Carlson vilifying Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“That’s so Foxxed up,” Acosta said, after staring dead-eyed at the camera for a couple of seconds. “That Tucker is always Foxing around, isn’t he. That Foxer. He really should talk to his buddy Neil, just down the hallway.”
Enter Neil Cavuto, saying, “I don’t know how productive that is” to vilify Fauci.
You want a scientist at the pandemic helm, “just like you want a pilot flying the plane,” Acosta noted. “Don’t hire the guy who’s watched ‘Red Dawn’ too many times.”
Sixteen months into a “pandemic of misinformation, so many Americans don’t know what to believe any more,” Acosta said. “We’ve been injected with lies about masks, about vaccines and about the virus itself. No wonder we have been a nation divided and dying.”
He showed clips of a man insisting there was no COVID, that it was all a hoax, and another guy who said, “I’m not afraid. The good lord takes care of me. If I die, I die.”
“Hold on — here’s a thought,” Acosta said. “Don’t die! Live! Live!”
———