According to the Washington Post, Fox Business anchor Trish Regan is likely out of her job after a partisan tirade accusing Democrats of engineering a coronavirus overreaction to topple President Donald Trump.
"Regan's on-air speculation at the start of last week that coronavirus was merely another impeachment gambit for Democrats drew widespread pushback," reported Paul Farhi and Sarah Ellison. "Clearly the mood was changing at Fox by the time the network announced late Friday that her discussion-and-commentary program on Fox Business would leave the air indefinitely, to be replaced by newscasts. Fox insiders said Regan is unlikely to return."
The report continued: "But they added that Regan's removal from air showed that only some hosts — those with the biggest ratings — are protected at Fox News. 'If you put Trish's comments up against Laura [Ingraham's], you can't honestly tell me that Trish is off the air' because of her coronavirus commentary, said a former Fox News executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about his past employer."
The ouster, according to the report, is part of a sea change in attitude towards the threat of coronavirus at the network, which just days ago had Ingraham and Sean Hannity decrying the "panic-pushers" triggering "mass hysteria." Several hosts have downplayed the mortality rate of the virus, and even when not doing that, some guests on the network have been spreading other misinformation, like Liberty University president Jerry Falwell's baseless claim on Friday the virus was a Chinese bioweapon.
Now, hosts who once ridiculed the virus, like Hannity, are instead acknowledging it as a "crisis" while simultaneously lauding Trump's response as "a bold, new precedent."
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