Fox News Has Mentioned Fauci 343 Times Since Monday. CNN and MS NOW Combined? 11

Depending on which cable news network you’ve been watching — Dr. Anthony Fauci’s newly-released diaries are either the biggest story in America, or a total nothingburger.

An analysis of cable news transcripts conducted by Mediaite via the media monitoring service Snapstream shows that over the past 36 hours, Fox News has mentioned Dr. Fauci’s name 343 times on its air. An average of 9.5 times per hour, or roughly once every 6 minutes.

Some shows have gone deeper than others. Jesse Watters Primetime mentioned Fauci 36 times on Monday night. Laura Ingraham invited HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on for a discussion which touched on Fauci — as Monday’s Ingraham Angle made 31 mentions of the former NIAID chief. And with just a handful of exceptions, just about every show has featured extensive Fauci coverage ahead of the doctor’s testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

It is a very, very different story over on CNN and MS NOW. CNN has mentioned Fauci 10 times on its air over the past 36 hours, per Mediate’s analysis. Six of those mentions took place during a single segment on CNN News Central in the 1 p.m. ET hour Tuesday. The rest came from CNN Newsnight, when conservative-leaning New York Post reporter Lydia Moynihan injected his name into a panel discussion on the Pentagon reportedly recategorizing four troop deaths so they don’t count in the Iran conflict death toll.

“We are not going to pivot to Anthony Fauci’s diaries,” host Abby Phillip told Moynihan.

And as for MS NOW? Just one mention — a very brief one during Monday’s edition of The Weeknight. Republican strategist Matthew Barrett criticized Trump and the party for stuck in the past.

“Elections are always about the future,” Barrett said. “We’re talking about, ‘Sleepy Joe’ … Fauci on Wednesday… Right now, we have nothing [to tell voters.]”

Left-leaning critics would undoubtedly argue Fox is leaning into the Fauci story — six years after the Covid-19 outbreak — because more timely topics like the Iran war and the economy are not subjects Fox’s audience wants to focus on. Right-leaning critics would argue that MS NOW and CNN are trying to bury a story that isn’t very flattering for them.

The real question now is: What will happen next? Will CNN and MS NOW start covering the story, or will Fox News stop?

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