(CNN Business) A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.

At the top of his prime time show Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson hyped a video featuring two California doctors who downplayed the threat of the coronavirus. The doctors, Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, are the co-owners of an urgent care clinic in Bakersfield. They went viral in the last few days for delivering a presentation last week in which they suggested the mortality rate of Covid-19 is similar to the flu.

The arguments the doctors put forward have been widely criticized. The American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine said in a joint statement that they "emphatically condemn the recent opinions released" by Erickson and Massihi. And YouTube removed the video for violating its community guidelines, which have been strengthened to prevent coronavirus misinformation from spreading rampantly on the platform.

But Carlson promoted their claims anyway. In fact, the Fox News host argued that "what YouTube just did" by removing the video will be seen "as a turning point in the way we live in this country." He declared that YouTube and Google "have now officially banned dissent."

Over on MSNBC, at the same time Carlson was spotlighting the claims from the doctors, Chris Hayes was working to debunk them. Characterizing Fox News as comprised of "coronavirus truthers," Hayes quoted University of Washington biologist Dr. Carl Bergstrom who said the doctors had "used methods that are ludicrous to get results that are completely implausible." Hayes also highlighted the blatant hypocrisy in Fox's top hosts calling for people to return to work when Fox's own executives have instructed the network's staff to work from home.

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