Usually, when Fox News gets someone from the White House on one of their programs, they’re on board with the propaganda. Fox News knows a Kellyanne will parrot the talking points on blaming governors, China, the World Health Organization, Obama, etc. And Kellyanne knows that no one at Fox will call her out when she lies or embarrasses herself with her stupidity, like when she said the W.H.O. had plenty of practice getting things right with viruses as this was covid-19, not “covid-1.” The virus is named after the year. But it’s rare for there to be any resistance to the bullshit from either side. Poor Laura Ingraham.

Laura had Dr. Anthony Fauci on her shit show and tried to rope him in with some trashing of Joe Biden. What Fox News and the administration is doing is trying to present an argument that Donald Trump is doing everything he can while also rushing us into reopening the economy (you can’t do both).

Laura mocked Joe Biden for saying on CNN, “This thing isn’t going to be over until we have a vaccine.” She asked Fauci to respond to Biden’s claim and expected him to join in the trashing and mocking. Nope. Fauci said, “there’s truth to that.” He went on, “It’s not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe, and effective vaccine.”

Ingraham tried to rebound by arguing we may not even need a vaccine as we never had one for HIV or SARS and that the virus might just “disappear.” Fauci said that was “misleading.” Her disappointment in watching her balloon pop was like Sean Hannity’s that time Rudy Giuliani mistakenly told him that Donald Trump did pay off porn stars and “funneled” the money through dummy corporations.

It’s dangerous either way. You bring on a smart and honest person and they’ll destroy your argument if you’re a liar and spreading propaganda. If you bring on a right-wing fucknut, they’ll destroy your argument by mistakenly admitting the truth, like paying off porn stars or bribing Ukrainian officials to help Donald Trump’s political campaign.

Ingraham decided on another rebound. She consulted with another doctor for a second opinion. Enter Dr. Phil.

Dr. Phil argued against closing the nation down and said, “Look, the fact of the matter is we have people dying — 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, but we don’t shut the country down for that. But yet we’re doing it for this?” He also made up some numbers about people drowning in swimming pools.

Dr. Phil is not a medical doctor. He’s a clinical psychologist with no special knowledge about the politics, science or economics of the shutdown. The guy isn’t medically qualified to remove a splinter. But you don’t have to be a doctor with Dr. Fauci’s qualifications to understand that drowning is NOT contagious. Neither are car accidents or smoking. On top of that, all that stuff is regulated by…wait for it…the federal government.

What does appear to be contagious…oh so very contagious…is stupidity.

Fox brought in Dr. Drew Pinsky last month who said the coronavirus was no more dangerous than the flu. Earlier this week, they got Dr. Mehmet Oz to casually suggest it was OK if we lost two to three percent of school children to the virus by reopening schools.

They each must have had someone point out their talking points were dumb as they’ve each walked them back.

Dr. Phil said his examples were “bad.” Pinsky apologized and Oz said he “misspoke.” How do you misspeak when you say it’s OK for children to die for your politics? By the way, the current Republican position is that it’s OK if people die for their politics, especially if it helps Donald Trump’s reelection.

I said this in a previous blog: Don’t take medical advice from Donald Trump or any Republicans. That goes for Fox News, which is state TV with a pro-Trump agenda. Fox News is more about propaganda than news.

Don’t expect Laura Ingraham, who likes to give the heil Hitler salute at Republican conventions, to take on the MAGAts protesting against stay-at-home orders. Don’t expect anyone on Fox to call out Trump for inciting violence with his “liberate” blue states tweets.

I’m not a doctor but I think I do have some sound advice that’ll be good for your brain: Don’t watch Fox News.

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