CNN host Dana Bash asked Surgeon General Vivek Murthy if Fox News and other conservative media outlets are killing people through the spread of misinformation amidst her network enduring criticisms over its repeated failures.
After showing clips of Fox News commentators Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham discussing concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Bash suggested Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the network could be killing people.
"Do you think conservative media, like Fox News ... are they killing people, too, with rhetoric like you just heard?" -- quite the question about Covid vaccine misinformation from Dana Bash to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pic.twitter.com/esULZC0c78
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 18, 2021
Murthy responded by saying that both the media and health professionals could "ultimately put people at risk" if they are not honest with the public about the "consequences of our communication" regarding the vaccine.
"People deserve to have access to accurate information," Murthy said. "They deserve to hear that from their leaders. They deserve to hear that from the media. They deserve to see that on platforms online."
"They need that information to be able to make decisions to protect themselves and their families," he continued. "That's the least we can do for them. And my worry is that all this misinformation that's floating around is having a real cost that can be measured in lives lost. And that is just tragic."
This comes after President Joe Biden asserted Friday that social media companies are killing people by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation to remain on their platforms. The president has since walked back his comments, saying Monday that Facebook is not killing people, but rather, Facebook users who spread "outrageous misinformation."
CNN alleging that Fox News is killing people through "vaccine misinformation" follows several notable failures of the left-wing media outlet.
Earlier this year, the network avoided covering sexual assault allegations charged at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), the brother of CNN host Chris Cuomo, for significant periods of time.
CNN also failed to report on Gov. Cuomo's nursing home scandal, including in February, when his administration was reported to have withheld data on coronavirus nursing home deaths.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the network was under fire for holding its upfront event at its New York location back in March 2020.
Last year, CNN also dismissed the possibility that COVID-19 may have originated from a laboratory leak after officials within the Trump administration suggested they had reason to believe the pandemic began as a result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
CNN viewership has fallen significantly since former President Donald Trump left office in January. The network has suffered a 70 percent decline in primetime and total day viewership, according to Nielsen Media Research. These rating are abysmal compared to networks like Fox News, who CNN has latched onto as their primary enemy following Trump's departure from the White House.
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