Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the previous authorities scientist, has been on one thing of a media spree in latest weeks, and liberal and conservative media shops have used very completely different tones to cowl his appearances.
Dr. Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the general public face of the nation’s combat towards Covid, is selling a brand new memoir, “On Call,” that features an account of his time in authorities beneath former President Donald J. Trump. This month he additionally testified earlier than Congress in a contentious listening to concerning the origins of the coronavirus.
Progressive publications have praised Dr. Fauci, quoting extensively from his e-book and taking the chance to criticize Mr. Trump for his insurance policies on Covid.
Conservative shops have largely ignored Dr. Fauci’s e-book and targeted extra on his testimony in Congress. They painted Dr. Fauci as a villain and falsely accused him of serving to begin the pandemic. The protection additionally highlighted an intense divide over the supposed origins of the coronavirus; a 2023 poll by Quinnipiac University confirmed that extra Republicans than Democrats consider it originated from a lab leak.
Here’s how a few of these shops have coated Dr. Fauci in latest days:
FROM THE LEFT
MSNBC
Throughout the pandemic, Democrats considered Dr. Fauci as a hero and the vanguard of the scientific neighborhood’s dissent towards Mr. Trump, who supported opening companies and faculties earlier than vaccines had been accessible and railed towards carrying masks.
MSNBC, which has lengthy praised Dr. Fauci for his dealing with of the general public well being response to Covid-19, characterised him as a bulwark towards Mr. Trump and Republicans. Rachel Maddow, the favored host on the community, promoted Dr. Fauci’s e-book, calling it “fascinating.”
“The Trump motion and its members in Congress and its supporters within the media are nonetheless going after Dr. Fauci,” Ms. Maddow said on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Tuesday, as a result of “he represents experience.”
While interviewing Dr. Fauci on his present “The Beat” on Tuesday, the MSNBC host Ari Melber said Mr. Trump had misplaced the 2020 election partially due to his dealing with of the pandemic. In a June 4 article, Steve Benen, an MSNBC contributor, wrote “there was no case to deliver” towards Dr. Fauci for his dealing with of the pandemic.
HuffPost, a liberal information outlet, revealed 4 separate articles primarily based on particular person anecdotes in Dr. Fauci’s e-book, all of which relied on the scientist’s recollections of interactions with Mr. Trump.
One article targeted on Dr. Fauci’s recounting of the “Surprising Aftermath of Correcting Donald Trump on Live TV,” referring to an encounter by which Dr. Fauci rejected Mr. Trump’s false declare that the drug hydroxychloroquine may remedy Covid-19. Dr. Fauci outlined in his e-book that although he anticipated Mr. Trump to berate him, the previous president celebrated this system’s rankings as a substitute.
In its protection of Dr. Fauci’s testimony earlier in June, HuffPost targeted extra on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican, who it stated went on “an off-topic rant” about animal testing throughout his testimony.
FROM THE RIGHT
The New York Post
In conservative media, Dr. Fauci has turn into an emblem of what many conservatives noticed as governmental overreach in the course of the pandemic.
The New York Post homed on this week on a remark made by Dr. Fauci on CBS News on Tuesday, the place he stated protecting faculties closed for a 12 months was “a mistake.”
The right-leaning outlet’s headline stated Dr. Fauci “lastly reverses course, agrees protecting faculties closed throughout COVID was ‘mistake.’” The article highlighted Dr. Fauci’s cautious strategy to reopening faculties in 2020, in addition to statistics that discovered scholar studying suffered in the course of the pandemic.
The New York Post has featured different criticisms of Dr. Fauci lately as properly. On June 15, the positioning ran an article that stated he “bragged” about turning down a profitable provide from a personal firm with a purpose to preserve working for the federal government, citing an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” by which Dr. Fauci stated he obtained job provides from pharmaceutical firms and personal fairness companies.
FROM THE RIGHT
The Washington Examiner
The Washington Examiner, a conservative web site that has additionally criticized Dr. Fauci for his dealing with of the pandemic, revealed two articles this week as a part of a sequence it calls “Fauci Unmasked” that chronicles a few of his work on Covid-19.
The first article ran with the headline “Clearing the document on masks, social distancing, and vaccines.” In it, the author Gabrielle M. Etzel stated Dr. Fauci “flip-flopped on the usage of mandates and social stress to extend vaccination charges.” Dr. Fauci didn’t initially help the widespread use of masks.
The second article, additionally by Ms. Etzel, targeted on the congressional investigation into the origins of the pandemic, and described Dr. Fauci as “an individual of curiosity” in that inquiry. But the article additionally acknowledged that the investigation had not discovered Dr. Fauci knew about “probably harmful analysis on the Wuhan lab.”
