Fox News personalities spent the first week of March sneering at the idea that COVID-19 was dangerous. They’ve since changed their tune once to acknowledge the dangers, only to start pivoting back to Donald Trump’s “markets over human life” message. But Fox’s 89-year-old chairman, Rupert Murdoch, appears to value his own life more than Republicans value the life of the average grandparent.
On March 8, Fox News commentary on coronavirus included gems like, “I feel like the more I learn about this, the less there is to worry about.” Also on March 8, Murdoch and his family canceled his 89th birthday party, which was to be held March 11.
The planned party wasn’t even very big! But apparently Murdoch was concerned about a gathering of even 20 people—concerned enough to cancel it the day after Jeanine Pirro said, on Fox News, “All the talk about coronavirus being so much more deadly doesn't reflect reality.”
On March 13, two days after Murdoch celebrated his birthday with close family only, Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt claimed that “it’s actually the safest time to fly right now” because so few people were flying.