Coronavirus: New video shows the shift in rhetoric at Fox News

Fox News hosts started self-isolating while in the studio on Tuesday

A video published on the Washington Post has revealed how Fox News and Fox Business anchors have modified their rhetoric surrounding coronavirus.

The video features prominent hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham​​ and Jeanine Pirro, showing clips from their respective shows a few days apart.

On 7 March , Ms Pirro claimed that “all the talk of coronavirus being more deadly doesn’t reflect reality.” Just a week later, she shifted her stance, saying: “We are facing an incredibly contagious and dangerous virus that is moving across the world from one hotspot to another.”

In another part of the clip, Mr Hannity speaking on 9 March said: “We are going to call out anyone using this virus as a political weapon against the president.”

On 16 March, his rhetoric shifted, with the prominent host saying that “we are now entering what will be the crucial defining 15 day period as it relates to this virus, where we must slow the spread of the coronavirus.”

The biggest shift in tone came from Ms Ingraham who on 26 February criticised Democrats, saying: “It is absolutely disgusting that Democrats are seeking to use this complex virus to score cheap political points.”

However, on 11 March, her tone changed completely, as the host added that “this dangerous health crisis could dovetail quickly into a political crisis, already feeling economic ramifications of it all.”

On Tuesday, Fox News hosts announced they were practicing social distancing in the studio, despite repeated attempts to downplay or mock events surrounding Covid-19.

Some 5,000 cases of the disease have been recorded so far in the US, and 94 deaths.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.