Posted on 05/23/2020 7:03:20 AM PDT by gattaca
Misinformation is taking a dangerous hold on Fox News viewers
Misinformation is taking a dangerous hold on Fox News viewers. According to a new poll, half of all Americans who name Fox News as their primary news source believe the debunked conspiracy theory claiming Bill Gates is looking to use a coronavirus vaccine to inject a microchip into people and track the world’s population.
The Yahoo News/YouGov poll, released on Friday, found that 44 percent of Republicans also buy into the unfounded claim, while just 19 percent of Democrats believe the lie about the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist.
According to Yahoo’s report on the poll, neither Fox News nor President Trump has promoted the false Gates conspiracy. But sowing seeds of distrust of mainstream media and the spread of misinformation is a hallmark of the network and the current president. Last month, Fox primetime host Laura Ingraham shared a tweet where she expressed agreement with a user who wrote about the debunked conspiracy theory.
“Digitally tracking Americans’ every move has been a dream of the globalists for years. This health crisis is the perfect vehicle for them to push this,” Ingraham wrote.
The poll also found that just 15 percent of MSNBC viewers believe the untrue conspiracy theory which, according to the fact-checking publication Snopes, began with the anti-vaccine movement. They chose to target Gates specifically because of his decade-long advocacy for vaccines.
According to an April report in the New York Times that looked into the right-wing targeting of Gates, media analysis company Zignal Labs found that “misinformation about Gates is now the most widespread of all coronavirus falsehoods” that the company has tracked.
This debunked conspiracy theory could be especially menacing if it deters any portion of the population from getting vaccinated, if and when one becomes available, which would then make it much tougher to rid the world of the virus.
In another poll released on Friday by Reuters/Ipsos showed increasing mistrust in the president due to his consistent habit of sharing misinformation. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed said they would be less willing to take a vaccine if it were endorsed by the president.
The picture these polls paint is both sad and obviously dangerous for all of us, especially with the current pandemic. Unfortunately, our country’s lack of trustworthy leadership means that more and more people are susceptible to bad and untrue advice that is rampant on random Reddit forums, Facebook posts and, yes, even TikTok — where conspiracy theories are paired with viral dances.
and the other half are brain dead!
Bill Gates along with his butt-buddy George Soros are evil personified. That should be the in the front of everybody’s mind. When they support anything, you know that it can’t be good.
Rolling scones, irrelevant then and irrelevant now
And...?
Rolling Stone pays $1,650,000 to settle lawsuit after false story about campus rape.
I know I don’t trust anyone who is a buddy with George Soros. Life has become increasingly bizarre because of these Leftist totalitarians.
It’s absolutely stupid to think Bill Gates wants to track us. For crying out loud, he’s a very generous person that gave us W10!.
People thinking the government wants to track us are the same paranoidals that think gun registry is just one step to confiscate guns.
(sarcasm is intended)
Seriously, globalism, new world order, doesn’t matter what you call it. Tracking citizens, taking away guns and personal liberties are a necessity. This globalism has been tried countless times throughout history. The most recent examples being Stalin & Hitler.
There is no vaccine. There is only talk, which seems to be Gates main work these days.
It is very possible in fact probable, that like many older men, Gates is actually no longer current
You think some of the leftist billionaires and CEOs would stand up for the free enterprise system that allowed them to become fabulously successful.
Sadly, the greater the wealth, the greater the corruption.
Perhaps once you bank your first couple billion, your focus shifts to the joys of accumulating power for its own sake.
Of course Gates would never do that.
Rolling Stone has no proof that this has been debunked. They cannot prove Gates isn't trying to do this...
I notice the article's author [and Snopes?], in the haste to smear conservatives, omits that the anti-vaccine movement's recent rhetoric is driven by a liberal kook conspiracy theorist, John F Kennedy Jr., not FOX News.
“They cannot prove Gates isn’t trying to do this... “
That’s a higher standard than anyone can, or should meet.
As for tracking people, social media and the telephone companies do a fine job.
Simple, paranoid minds work in simple, paranoid ways.
The part that makes it amusing to watch is their fervent belief in that which does not exist, inventing evidence and “signs” from everything in their environment.
Vaccines are the Golden calf of 2020. Questioning then is to attack the religion of medical experts. I already have religion...and by His stripes I am healed
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