News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: Rupert Murdoch harms his audience; Coronavirus cancels all

March 13, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in Palm Beach

Good morning. 📉 How low will it go? U.S. markets suffered their worst day since 1987 on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10 percent, the S&P 500 fell 9.5 percent and the Nasdaq fell 9.4 percent, bringing all three indexes into a bear market.

📰 Sign of the Times: In a global staff meeting, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet called the coronavirus outbreak the biggest story since 9/11.

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The Other Pandemic

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are harming their audience

Moving the Market: Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the Fox Corporation, and his son Lachlan, the company's chief executive, have been presiding over misleading and possibly harmful coverage of the coronavirus at their flagship cable network, Fox News.

• For weeks, and especially in recent days, several Fox News hosts and on-air talent have denied or downplayed the significance of the virus. Some have argued that the media is over-dramatizing the outbreak in an effort to hurt President Donald Trump.

• While Fox News has become known for its staunch and unwavering loyalty to the president, the network's coronavirus denialism poses a unique threat to its audience: the average Fox News viewer is in his or her mid-60s and thus at a higher-risk for the disease.

• No comment: Representatives for both the Murdochs and the Fox Corporation did not provide comment from the two men or the organization; a Fox News spokesperson did not respond at all to a request for comment.

The big picture: Fox News, right-wing radio and staunchly pro-Trump websites have become the last bastion for coronavirus denialism at a time when seemingly every U.S. institution is taking swift action to address the outbreak (see next item).

• The denialism is dangerous. It may be partisan preference to propagandize on matters of politics, policy or even the president's impeachment, as Fox News has done. But it is a public health risk to dismiss or downplay a virus that has killed roughly 5,000 people.

Top lines: Sean Hannity referred to the media's coverage of coronavirus as "mass hysteria"; Laura Ingraham accused the media of being "panic pushers," and Fox Business anchor Trish Regan called it "yet another attempt to impeach the president."

• Tucker Carlson, to his credit, has called coronavirus a "very serious problem" and chided those who have sought to downplay it. "People you know will get sick, some may die," he has said. "This is real."

What's next: The Washington Post's Margaret Sullivan has argued that "Rupert Murdoch could save lives by forcing Fox News to tell the truth about coronavirus." It is more likely that the threat itself will become too overwhelming for Fox News to ignore.

Drew Angerer/Getty

Cost of Coronavirus

American sports, cancelled

Talk of TV Land: NCAA President Mark Emmert has canceled the March Madness basketball tournaments over concerns about coronavirus. The unprecedented move came as several major American sports leagues suspended their seasons.

• The NBA has suspended games for at least 30 days.

• The NHL has suspended games indefinitely.

• The MLB has suspended spring training and delayed Opening Day by at least two weeks.

• The MLS has suspended games for at least 30 days and cancelled upcoming U.S. national team matches.

• The PGA Tour has cancelled this weekend's Players Championship and the next three events on its schedule.

The big picture: These suspensions will have major negative financial impacts on media networks and advertisers, as well as players, team staff and arena employees. March Madness and the NBA postseason are especially crucial ratings draws for broadcasters.

• The suspensions could "send TV advertising, as a whole, into a sharp downturn," says media analyst Rich Greenfield.

What's next: The cancellations and suspensions have only reinforced doubts about the future of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to start on July 24.

• The Olympic torch was lit Thursday in Greece, without spectators. Whether it makes it to Tokyo is an open question.

🏀 Playing Ball 🏀

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on a special edition of "Inside the NBA" last night, his first major public appearance following his decision to suspend the NBA season.

Top line: "We're at the point now where this has been declared a pandemic," Silver said. "It's virtually impossible to contain it."

Allen J. Schaben/Getty

Coronavirus, Con't

Parks shut, Upfronts scrapped

Talk of Tinseltown: Disneyland, Disney World and Universal Studios Hollywood have all announced that they will close for roughly two weeks as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

• NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS and other major media companies have cancelled their May "Upfront" plans, opting to instead present their new slate of shows to advertisers digitally.

• Universal Studios has postponed the release of "Fast & Furious 9" to 2021, making it the second major blockbuster after "No Time To Die" to be delayed amid coronavirus fears. NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News and Universal Studios.

• Apple and the television studio Media Res have put a two-week hiatus on production of Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show."

• Los Angeles-based late night shows have joined their New York counterparts in scrapping live audiences.

• Broadway theaters have suspended all shows through April 12 amid a New York City ban on public gatherings of more than 250 people.

• The CNN Democratic debate on Sunday, March 15, has been moved from Arizona to Washington, D.C., where it will take place in a CNN studio without a live audience.

What's next: Expect more suspensions and cancellations out of Hollywood in the day ahead.

Market Links

• David Rubenstein talks wealth and privilege (NYT)

• Mark Zuckerberg sponsors a CNN coronavirus town hall (CNN)

• Facebook and Twitter suspend Russian-linked accounts (WaPo)

• Reed Hastings closes Netflix HQ amid a virus scare (Variety)

• Carlos Cordeiro resigns from U.S. Soccer (NBC)

Bloomberg/Getty

Smart Takes

Bear Market blues

Parting shot: We'll leave you with two refreshingly simple and straightforward takes on the current market crisis from two of our favorite voices at Bloomberg.

Bloomberg Opinion's Matt Levine:

• "It's weird to have a market crash with such a simple explanation. Why are we in a bear market? An infectious disease is killing people and disrupting all sorts of economic activity. That's it; that'll do it."

• "When you read about the 1929 or 1987 crashes, the stories involve some combination of speculative bubbles and leverage and slowing economic trends and unstable combinations of new financial technologies."

• "In 20 years when you read the Wikipedia page for the crash of 2020 it'll be like 'everyone got a virus so the market crashed.'"

Bloomberg TV's Joe Wiesenthal:

• "The crash is happening with unprecedented speed for a simple reason, which is that we've just never seen anything like a complete simultaneous shutdown of so many parts of the economy like this before. ... There's really no such thing as 'affected parts of the economy.' Everyone's income is someone else's spending."