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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto made a personal plea to get vaccinated — but you wouldn't know it from watching Fox News

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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto made a personal plea to get vaccinated — but you wouldn't know it from watching Fox News

CNN showcased John King's pro-vax remarks. Fox News buried Cavuto's.

Aaron Rupar
Oct 21, 2021
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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto made a personal plea to get vaccinated — but you wouldn't know it from watching Fox News

aaronrupar.substack.com
Cavuto on the air in October 2019. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)

Thank you for reading Public Notice. After you read today’s newsletter, please check out the housekeeping notes at the bottom of the page.

— Post updated on October 22 and October 24 at bottom —

Two prominent cable news anchors released statements speaking out forcefully on behalf of Covid vaccines this week. The different ways their employers handled them said a lot about CNN and Fox News.

Vaccines became a big topic of conversation on cable news following the death of former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell had multiple myeloma, a form of cancer that can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, and died of complications from Covid despite being fully vaxxed. So while a number of Fox News personalities used his death to try to indict vaccines and vaccine mandates — something I wrote about on Tuesday — in reality the story highlighted the importance of getting vaccinated to protect vulnerable people around you.


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That point was made forcefully by CNN anchor John King in a segment on Tuesday discussing the right-wing spin of Powell’s death — one that culminated in King revealing details about his own health status that weren’t publicly known.

"I'm going to share a secret I've never spoken before: I am immunocompromised. I have multiple sclerosis. So I'm grateful you're all vaccinated,” King said, adding that he’s “grateful” for CNN’s vaccine mandate.

“I worry about bringing it home to my 10-year-old son who can’t get a vaccine,” he continued. “I don’t like the government telling me what to do. I don’t like my boss telling me what to do. In this case, it’s important.”

Twitter avatar for @oliverdarcy
Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy
—@JohnKingCNN: "I'm going to share a secret I've never shared before: I am immunocompromised. I have multiple sclerosis. So I'm grateful you're all vaccinated...."
4:37 PM ∙ Oct 19, 2021
38,122Likes7,699Retweets

The above clip racked up over a million views on Twitter, and CNN followed up by showcasing King’s story on Wednesday’s edition of New Day. During that interview, King told host John Berman that Fox News’s coverage of Powell’s death bothered him to the point that he felt compelled to say something.

"I do not understand people who get up in the morning, who are vaccinated themselves, and who willingly lie to get attention, to get clickbait, to get whatever. I do not understand it,” King said. “We can have a debate about vaccine mandates. We should have big debates in America about the big issues in our country. But we should do them based on facts. The vaccines work. And it's not just a million people with MS like me, John. There are millions more like Gen. Powell.”

Twitter avatar for @NewDay
New Day @NewDay
"I hope nobody noticed it, but election week in America was probably one of my worst weeks last year. I was having a lot of trouble functioning." @JohnKingCNN discusses his 13-year-long battle with multiple sclerosis. cnn.it/3vqR4YU
12:20 PM ∙ Oct 20, 2021
3,907Likes937Retweets

CNN’s coverage of vaccines and vaccine mandates has generally reflected what we know from science and are told by public health experts, which is that mass vaccination is our best path to ending the pandemic. But, as King alluded to and I’ve written about, much of Fox News’s coverage has politicized the vaccine by downplaying its effectiveness and framing mandates as tyrannical government overreach.

That put Fox in an awkward spot when one of its own anchors spoke out about the importance of vaccination in a statement announcing he had tested positive for Covid.

A Fox News anchor’s Covid case was news everywhere but Fox

In the post-Shep Smith era, Neil Cavuto is the closest thing Fox News has to a moderate weekday host. While clearly a conservative, Cavuto — who’s also a senior vice president and managing editor of business news for Fox News and Fox Business — sometimes strays from the party line by fact-checking Trump’s dangerous medical misinformation or pushing back on Republican lies about the 2020 election. In one memorable instance, he got into a heated exchange with then-Fox Business host Lou Dobbs when he wouldn’t let Dobbs get away with exaggerating Trump’s economic record.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Wow. Fox News personalities Neil Cavuto and Lou Dobbs had an unusually heated exchange after Cavuto challenged Dobbs to name a single thing Trump has done to control the national deficit and debt. (Note that Dobbs was never able to do it.)
11:35 PM ∙ Jul 31, 2019
1,749Likes667Retweets

Compared to the likes of Tucker Carlson, Cavuto has been relatively responsible in his coverage of the Covid pandemic. In July, for instance, he defended Dr. Anthony Fauci against Republican efforts to discredit him. He’s also had a number of personal health issues he’s talked about publicly, including cancer and heart surgery. Like King, Cavuto has MS.

Unfortunately, Cavuto is now dealing with Covid too. In a statement released through Fox News Media on Tuesday, Cavuto said he’s “somewhat stunned” but “surviving” because he was vaccinated.

"While I'm somewhat stunned by this news, doctors tell me I'm lucky as well," Cavuto said. "Had I not been vaccinated, and with all my medical issues, this would be a far more dire situation. It's not, because I did and I'm surviving this because I did.”

Cavuto went on to offer a powerful plea for vaccination.

"I hope anyone and everyone gets that message loud and clear. Get vaccinated, for yourself and everyone around you,” he said.

MSNBC, CNN, and a number of other major outlets covered Cavuto’s statement. Fox News, however, ignored it, resulting in an ironic situation where competing cable networks were devoting more time to a story involving a Fox anchor than Fox.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto's Covid diagnosis has ironically gotten more coverage on MSNBC than on Fox News or Fox Business, where it hasn't even been mentioned yet
Image
1:44 PM ∙ Oct 20, 2021
5,387Likes1,288Retweets

On Wednesday, the host filling in for Cavuto in his usual early afternoon Fox Business time slot, David Asman, announced he was “in for Neil Cavuto,” but didn’t mention that Cavuto has Covid. Fox News’s website also had no coverage of Cavuto’s illness or his statement encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Cavuto’s Covid case was finally acknowledged on the air later Wednesday during his usual afternoon time slot on Fox News, but fill-in host Charles Payne still didn’t mention his colleague’s strong statement supporting vaccination.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Fox News finally addressed Cavuto's Covid diagnosis on the air, but ignored his strong statement supporting vaccines
8:07 PM ∙ Oct 20, 2021
2Likes1Retweet

It’s unclear how Cavuto contracted Covid, but worth noting that despite the fear-mongering about mandates peddled by hosts, the company requires employees to either be vaxxed or take daily Covid tests. That requirement and other Covid-related mandates are the only safe thing to do for employers requiring in-person work, because unvaccinated people are more likely to spread Covid and thus endanger colleagues who are either immunocompromised or around people who are.

Ultimately, the Powell, King, and Cavuto stories all highlight why getting vaccinated is not just a personal decision. You may be young and healthy and not worried about Covid, but others aren’t so fortunate. As King said on the air, nobody relishes the government or their employer mandating things, but in this instance it’s a life or death issue for many.

A Fox News spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment about why the network has had so little to say about Cavuto on the air or online, but it’s notable that the case he makes for the importance of vaccination is at odds with so much of the network’s Covid coverage. And it speaks volumes that while Fox ignores a pro-vaccination statement from one of its own anchors, it eagerly platforms and glorifies anti-vax comments coming from complete randos.

Indeed, Cavuto’s personal plea for vaccination still hadn’t been mentioned on Fox News or Fox Business by Thursday morning. Fox & Friends instead did a softball interview with an anti-vaxxer.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Fox News still hasn't mentioned anchor Neil Cavuto's personal plea for vaccination on the air at all. But they are interviewing anti-vax randos.
12:51 PM ∙ Oct 21, 2021
307Likes68Retweets

And Fox Business did a segment promoting Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) anti-mandate legislation.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
another Fox segment glorifying anti-vaxxers
Image
1:51 PM ∙ Oct 21, 2021
172Likes28Retweets

Update 10/22 — Cavuto will be interviewed by Howard Kurtz on his Fox News show on Sunday.

Twitter avatar for @HowardKurtz
HowardKurtz @HowardKurtz
Looking forward my conversation with Neil
Twitter avatar for @johnnydollar01
johnny dollar @johnnydollar01
Neil Cavuto @TeamCavuto will appear on @Mediabuzz with @HowardKurtz Sunday October 24th at 11AM/ET. Kurtz will interview Cavuto about his break-through case of Covid which he was diagnosed with earlier this week after being fully vaccinated. https://t.co/fxTnW78W6H
5:16 PM ∙ Oct 22, 2021
8Likes2Retweets

Update 10/24 — Cavuto used his interview with Kurtz to speak out about the importance of getting vaccinated.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
In his first Fox News appearance since contracting Covid, Fox News host Neil Cavuto speaks out about the importance of vaccination
3:20 PM ∙ Oct 24, 2021
37Likes10Retweets

Public Notice housekeeping notes

I hope you’ve liked the first three weeks of Public Notice as much as I’ve enjoyed putting these posts together. From unpacking the vulnerabilities of American democracy to grappling with the challenges of covering Trump to going deep on American kleptocracy, I’m proud of the work already on the site and looking forward to more.

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Thanks for reading and supporting my work. Birthdays tend to put one in a reflective mood, and I’m very grateful for (among many other things) the fantastic audience I have that made going independent and doing this newsletter possible. I really appreciate it.

I’ll be back with another free edition early next week. As always, feel free to reach out to me with questions, comments, or feedback via email (atrupar@gmail.com) or on Twitter (@atupar).


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Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto made a personal plea to get vaccinated — but you wouldn't know it from watching Fox News

aaronrupar.substack.com
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nkrempa
paid
Oct 21, 2021

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Hope that you, the Missus, and Mia have a terrific day loaded with friends & family (the vaxxed variety) and full of all the love and smiles you've shared with all of us for so long! <3 See you next week!!

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Beth
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Oct 22, 2021

Happy Birthday! I'm so pleased with Public Notice and looking forward to more.

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