Upon his return to the air after a Covid-19 diagnosis, Neil Cavuto read aloud some viewer messages, some of which wished him well. Others, as MSNBC’s Ari Melber put it on Wednesday, amounted to “pretty vile attacks.”
Melber played a clip of Cavuto, who is immunocompromised due to bouts with multiple sclerosis and cancer, imploring Fox News viewers during an appearance on Sunday’s MediaBuzz to get vaccinated against Covid.
“Life is too short to be an ass,” said Cavuto. “Life is way too short to be ignorant of the promise of something that is helping people worldwide. Stop the deaths. Stop the suffering. Please, get vaccinated. Please.”
One viewer wrote in response, “It’s clear you’ve lost some weight with all this stuff. Good for you. But I’m not happy with less of you. I want none of you. I want you gone. Dead. Kaput. Fini. Get it? Now, take your two-bit advice and deep-six it, and you!”
Melber said that “Cavuto [is] sharing what he’s hearing and imploring people to understand this is extreme while also trying to figure out what to do with an audience that clearly sees this differently because of his colleagues. He also notes something we’re all seeing here, that just sharing medical facts is now, on the right, politically volcanic.”
He accused Cavuto’s colleague Tucker Carlson of “hiding the ball&
“That is exactly just a quick sample of what Neil Cavuto and others at Fox are dealing with,” said Melber. “Now, whether someone chooses to email references to Mr. Cavuto’s demise or something that could sound even like wishing it or a death threat, is ultimately the responsibility of that person. The fact Mr. Cavuto shared it in whatever way he did for his reasons, puts everyone on notice, including his colleagues, that trafficking in misinformation and getting people this hopped up can be dangerous in more than one way. Dangerous to themselves and maybe to others.”
Watch above via MSNBC.