I’m guessing it was the threat of legal
liability. A class action suit against Fox and Fiends could bankrupt them and short circuit their propaganda gravy train.
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Yes, I’m guessing there is some sort of RWNJ clearinghouse, and it is talk radio which provides the data for what amounts to an effective organ to perform that function.
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Sounds too good to be true - and it is. IF 70% of the students are vaccinated, then those who are will be entered into a drawing to win a scholarship. Else nobody gets zip.
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Carlson and the couch-sitters might skate on a 1st Amendment defense because those are opinion shows and not the news side. Regardless, claims of “You killed my Mom” is not a good look for a cable network. If the turnaround was ordered by Murdoch, it’s probably more to avoid bad publicity than actual legal threat.
The fun part is that now people like Rand Paul and the other anti-vax opportunists have been hung out to dry, with no rightwing media backup.
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Yes, I’m guessing there is some sort of RWNJ clearinghouse, and it is talk radio which provides the data for what amounts to an effective monitoring system for Fox and Fiends and the like Lots of stuff gets thrown against the wall and what sticks filters up. The anti-vaccination message resonated to the degree it has been identified as a serious threat to public health: thus the
makings of a devastating class action law suit against the purveyors that instigated the anti-vaxer movement. Once it dawned on the right wing echo chamber there might be serious legal liability they changed their tune.
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As a teacher, the thought of having to do hybrid or virtual again makes me deeply unhappy. We start in September so I will be interested to see how things go when August schools start up again. I did see one theory that the UK is being helped out right now by schools having ended for the term.
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It has nice beat but it’s hard to dance to.
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Some one in the Kock network must have come to the conclusion that being anti-vax was now against their interests, and sent out the memo: “We were never anti-vax! Repeat it!”
“Oh, and we have always been at war with Eastasia!”
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Well that has been happening for years now. Pick a subject, any subject. I have been complaining since Johnson, certainly since Nixon.
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Yep, when they choose a talking point they really stick to it, until they don’t.
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That’s just too much free speech for the 1st amendment cult, err umm crowd.
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Interesting experiment in social coercion. It’s not enough for me to get vaccinated- I’ve got to convince all my mates (or frat brothers as the case may be) to get vaccinated or I don’t get entered in the drawing.
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The NYT had some similar language or something that made me think the same. The more mainstream, it seems, the softer they are, fearful of backlash. And this cowardly way of speaking about people who are making dangerous choices that affect every last one of us is creating an environment where the actual hard truth is seen as offensive and so people will howl if someone “goes too far”, lending a sort of credibility to their recklessness or at least a deflection from it. This dancing around their political motivations calling it hesitant is doing this country no favors.
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This guy’s been preying on cultists and “fringe medicine” types for many years. I remember his name from up in the PNW years back. It’s wild he’s still around and still making all this money from the same kind of saps. Although, I’d say there are A LOT more these days… unfortunately.
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Meanwhile, America seems to agree with Fauci, and pessimism is increasing according to the latest ABC/IPSOS poll: optimism about the country’s future has dropped 20 points among Democrats and Republicans points since May, and 26 points among Independents. Worst of it may be that the downward trend seems to hinge on Covid pessimism. and approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic has dropped 9 points since March.
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Since Joe did not reach his July4th goal of numbers of vaccinations, the right wingers could be pushing vaccination so they can claim they reached the goal, not Joe. Once a cynic, always a cynic.
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I think he had it covered.
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