BROADCASTS.com

b'

Amidst hundreds of thousands of Americans dying from COVID-19, countless pleas from health officials and the CDC to wear maks and social distance, and a recent report from Lancet that put the cherry on top of the \\u201cthis was basically Trump\\u2019s fault\\u201d sundae, Fox News has decided to do what Fox News does: Go against all of that. This time, their \\u201cpoison pill\\u201d of choice, as Media Matters\\u2019 President and CEO Angelo Cursone calls it in this episode of The New Abnormal, is vaccine skepticism. \\u201cWhat Fox is doing with the vaccines right now is similar to the role that they played at every step of public health measures,\\u201d Cursone tells co-host Molly Jong-Fast. \\u201cThey dismissed social distancing early on. They were sort of skeptical about the masks and Jeanine Pirro was warning her audience. That the only reason people wear masks is to do bad things.\\u201d Now, they\\u2019re telling their viewers they\\u2019re not sure about taking the \\u201cGeorge Soros Kool-Aid.\\u201d (Rick Wilson is already seeing this play out with \\u201cMAGA moms\\u201d on Facebook). But Fox has a reason for this, adds Cursone, who shares his theory. It has to do with your cable bill\\u2014and it\\u2019s also the very way the network could be destroyed. The more outrage they get, the more viewers, the more negotiating power they have against cable companies to get them to charge cable watchers more for their channel. \\u201cFox News, now, for every person that has cable news pays Fox news between $2 and $2 and 50 cents a month, whether or not you ever watched the channel and what they\'re trying to do, because they\'ve lost so much, advertising [wants to] get that number up from about $2, a person to $3 to $3 and 50 cents over the next year,\\u201d and if there\\u2019s a way to hit them where it hurts, explains Cursone, it\\u2019s here. Of course, it\\u2019s not a New Abnormal episode if there isn\\u2019t talk of impeachment, especially the hearings going on right now involving the Capitol insurrection. Rick is particularly furious at Rick Scott and Marco Rubio: \\u201cThey\'re basically just saying, ah, yeah, our little plot failed. Our little coup failed. So we\'re just going to hang out here and be the dick kids in the back of the room, throwing at the teacher.\\u201d Speaking of dicks, Molly tells the fun little tale of Marjorie Taylor Green and the Tantric Sex Guru and Daily Beast congressional reporter Sam Brodey talks about his experience witnessing the trial in person.

If you haven\'t heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast\\u2019s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O\\u2019Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just Rick & Molly discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you\\u2019ll support The Beast\\u2019s fearless journalism. Plus! You\\u2019ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.