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Possibly because somebody in the office lost a bet, Vox watched and categorized the entirety of Fox News's "coverage" of the Congressional Budget Office's conclusion that the Republican rollback of healthcare reform would cause 23 million Americans to lose their health insurance. Fox is in a bit of a pickle on this one, because the people most likely to lose their insurance are the same sort of people who watch Fox News.
Under the Vox breakdown, the first CBO score was met primarily with insistence that freedom was more important than someone having stupid ol' health insurance. That apparently didn't do much even for Fox News viewers because by May, the effort had turned to demonizing the Congressional Budget Office for saying such things out loud. As usual, the effort mostly relies on Fox News viewers being dumb as posts, but Fox has been doing this for a very long time and we're not going to dispute their own estimation of their viewers. Here's Fox & Friends talking tree stump Brian Kilmeade saying not to worry, viewers about to be gouged by the Republican plan, because reasons:
But then you factor in the fact that this is a three-phase plan. The second phase is when [Health and Human Services Secretary] Tom Price is supposed to theoretically sit there and put in regulations that’ll make this more of a conservative project.
And theoretically, Fox pretends to be a news network. Doesn't make it so. And the notion that Tom Price will be following up at some future date with a “conservative” plan that gives people more insurance seems to require more than the usual Fox-required suspension of disbelief.
Fear not, though. Fellow stump Steve Doocy wants you to know that it doesn't matter if you, out there in the viewing audience, lose your health insurance because you aren't the damn point here:
But here’s the thing: What if it’s — the hope for everybody is this is actually better. Reduces taxes and stuff like that.And ultimately, when it comes to politics, this is going to redeem Speaker Paul Ryan. Plus, it’s going to give President Trump his first big — and it is big — legislative win.
Look, we're going to level with you, viewers. Whether or not you live or die is considerably less important than "reduces taxes and stuff," and nothing more than a puff of wind in comparison to redeeming Paul Ryan. Now eat your cat food and watch this catheter commercial.
It takes a lot to spin an intentional sabotage of American healthcare markets as being the patriotic thing to do. A lot of lies, a lot of misdirection, and—lest we forget—a level of base amorality that most people would find hard to sustain without killing themselves. But Fox News has been training their audience for these moments for many years. They know what their viewers will put up with. There will be fewer viewers in the future, of course, but that is a small price to pay to give Paul Ryan a much-needed legislative win.
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