NEW YORK — Do as they do, not as they say.
Despite its hosts’ hysterical rants about vaccination programs, Fox News reportedly has what is tantamount to a vaccine passport program to protect its own workers.
Both The Hill and CNN report that internal emails from the human resources department at Fox Corporation last month informed employees that “a secure, voluntary” method by which workers could “self-attest their vaccination status” was being made available. It’s called the FOX Clear Pass.
According to that email, employees who provide the right-wing media empire with information regarding the dates they were vaccinated and the vaccination they received would be helping the company with “space planning and contact tracing.”
Employees who supply that information will no longer be required to complete a daily health screening, according to the reports.
Not only has Fox welcomed guests who reject the concept of so-called vaccine passports — its own messengers have scoffed at the idea on air.
Cash cow Tucker Carlson recently equated separating non-vaccinated people — who could be carrying a deadly and contagious virus — to racial segregation during the Jim Crow era. The perpetually aggrieved pundit admitted during that screed that “the coronavirus is transmissible and it can be dangerous,” but noted there are other diseases that fit that description, too. As an example, he cited, tuberculosis which is not at the center of a global pandemic.
While a judge ruled in September 2020 that viewers should know Carlson is not “stating actual facts” about the topics on his show, the 52-year-old entertainer commands a larger audience than anyone on cable news. Carlson has been defensive when asked about his own vaccination status.
Fellow host Laura Ingraham has expressed concern that vaccine passports could be made to include a person’s HIV status. HIV is not an airborne virus.
Fox News has repeatedly undermined efforts to mitigate the dangers of COVID-19, which has killed more than 600,000 Americans. That has included comparing the deadly pandemic to the common flu and refuting the value of wearing masks in minimizing transmission.
