Atlanta, Georgia – A recent episode of CNN’s program “Reliable Sources”, host Brian Stelter spent time recapping how Fox News covered the ongoing Ebola crisis in the United States. Bear in mind, CNN accepted the Obama administration’s explanation of events in Benghazi and then refused to cover the story as the administration’s story collapsed. Also bear in mind that Fox News has been beating out CNN in nearly every time slot for a decade now. So CNN’s coverage of their rival can hardly be viewed as objective. That said, the program expressed disapproval for how Fox News is covering the Ebola crisis.
Quite likely, there was no mention of the Obama administrations assurances that Ebola would not make it to the United States. CNN took issue with Fox News claiming that Ebola is now in the country while admitting that the claim is true. CNN nuanced their admission by stating that there is only one case of the highly contagious disease. Apparently, they view Fox News as exploiting the fears of viewers in their coverage of the story.
In the case of Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, Stelter was upset that Tantaros alerted viewers to the prospect that visitors coming from or returning from travel in West Africa might be carriers of the deadly disease. There is no question that West Africa has been afflicted with an outbreak of Ebola. It is also true that symptoms do not manifest themselves immediately.
So people coming from West Africa may in fact be carriers for Ebola. CNN seems to be exercising a great deal of forbearance at this time. Would that they had done the same regarding the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Instead CNN spread stories of mass crime and assault at the superdome which stories turned out to be utter fabrications.