So.

There is Greg Gutfeld of Fox’s The Five, plain as day on January 28 — right here — talking about the reasons to be concerned about the arrival of the coronavirus in America. He goes on — at length.

He recommends a ban on people coming here from China — which in fact is exactly what the president would do three days later on January 31. (And recall that in taking this action Trump was assailed as a racist, with everybody from Joe Biden to the New York Times and the Washington Post saying a version of the same thing, with CNN saying the move would backfire.)

Recall as well this from the far-left Media Matters. Here’s their headline from January 27:

Fox News fearmongers about coronavirus with dubiously sourced viral video

Yes, you read that right. There, plain as day, is Media Matters downplaying the virus and accusing Fox News of being “fearmongers” in their virus coverage.

So something was clearly amiss when Media Matters’ Andrew Lawrence, the group’s deputy director of rapid response, posted this — on March 31:

Greg Gutfeld says Fox’s ‘The Five” sounded the alarm on coronavirus back in January.… BUT he’s lying.

The liar, clearly, was Lawrence — not Greg Gutfeld. This is, among other things, why the phrase “let’s go to the video” is an American standard.

Here is what Greg actually said on January 28:

OK, this is what is a bit strange about this, and I would actually say that our administration is right now doing a terrible job. And I’ll tell you why. The CDC is telling people: “Don’t go to China.” They’re telling us, “Don’t go to China.” That’s half the equation. How about China coming to us? If we’re saying, “Don’t go there, but you can still come here” — that’s idiotic. McDonald’s is closing stores in China. Tibet’s closing their border and traffic. Infections are doubling like every six days. And we’re sitting here and we’re like well you know what, it’s not the flu. Well, you know what it’s in the early stages and the scientists that are mapping this virus are super worried. They’re watching these epicenters spread to all over mainland China. And why is that? Because of the transit leaks. Transportation. It’s all about where people are going these days. And it’s coming here unless you stop it. So I do think we should consider a temporary travel ban. Because if we’re telling citizens not to go there — why don’t we tell them they can’t come here? I don’t understand. Doesn’t that seem like a stupid suggestion?

After Juan Williams puzzled that we — that would mean the Obama administration — didn’t do this with Ebola, Greg went on:

Well, I don’t know. I’m not a scientist. All I know is I’m reading, I’m trying to figure out with this information. And by the way, you know me, I don’t panic over anything. I’ve watched every pandemic from the Bird Flu to SARS … this stuff they tell us is huge and then it’s not. But this is weird. Because it’s doubling at a fast rate and the governments aren’t telling us everything … which is weird. And to your point I didn’t know that about what (Dr. Marc) Siegel said, that is the truth, I would bet on it.

In other words, Greg Gutfeld was clear as crystal about the approach of the virus. (And yes, full disclosure, back there in the mists of primordial man — the Reagan era — Greg’s younger self was starting his career as an intern right here at The American Spectator.)

Again, here is what the Media Matters communications director said, on March 31, over two full months after Gutfeld spoke in detail about his concerns. Said Media Matters:

Greg Gutfeld says Fox’s “The Five” sounded the alarm on coronavirus back in January.… BUT he’s lying.

Ahhhh. No.

The untruth here, vividly so, is that Media Matters is lying about Greg Gutfeld. Smearing him with a vividly provable and quite deliberate untruth. Why?

This is part and parcel of the ongoing leftist campaign to silence Fox News. This is what Media Matters is all about. It’s Greg Gutfeld today, on another day a version of the same Media Matters disinformation and gaslighting campaign has and will again target Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Fox and Friends, and on and on and on.

As mentioned in this space last week, this is a war. Amidst the war against the virus, the war within the war is the Left’s war to take down Fox News.

There is no lie too small, no disinformation or gaslighting that can’t be used in the war on Fox.

The irony, of course, is that in this case there is that plain-as-day headline from Media Matters itself back on January 27 — the very day before Greg made his comments. Again, that headline said this:

Fox News fearmongers about coronavirus with dubiously sourced viral video

And that, my friends, is no lie.