Fox News fans more likely to believe untruths about COVID-19: report

NEW YORK - Viewers who trust conservative media outlets like Fox News Channel are more likely to believe falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccines than those of other media outlets, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

This was found by a study released earlier this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), the AP said.

In the study, the KFF polled people on whether or not they believed seven widely-circulated untruths about COVID-19, including the government's exaggeration of the death toll, or hiding reports that COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility, contain a microchip or can change DNA, the AP said.

According to the poll conducted on Oct 14-24 in random telephone calls to 1,519 American adults, 36 percent for Fox News viewers, 46 percent for Newsmax viewers and 37 percent for One America Network News either believed in or were unsure about four or more false statements.

While, only between 11 and 16 percent of people, who most trusted in media outlets like NPR, CNN or MSNBC, believed in or were unsure about four or more of those untrue statements.

A sharp partisan divide on trust in news outlets has remained for years, the AP said, citing the KFF as saying that 65 percent of Democrats believe what they hear about COVID-19 on CNN, while only 17 percent of Republicans do; about half of Republicans believe what they hear about COVID-19 on Fox, while only 18 percent of Democrats do.