Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch Reportedly Mandated Vaccines and Testing at His 90th Birthday

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Are vaccine mandates a useful tool for limiting the spread and toll of Covid-19 or are they a crazed infringement on personal liberty?

For Fox News, the answer is complicated. The network’s top hosts have waged a campaign against vaccine mandates for months (on Thursday night a Fox host aired a petrifying graphic during a segment on vaccine requirements for businesses that blared “COMPLY OR STARVE.”)

Rupert Murdoch doesn’t have an issue with such mandates. The chairman of Fox Corporation celebrated his 90th birthday at Tavern on the Green in Central Park last week, and Politico reports that guests were required to show proof of vaccination and take a rapid test to enter.

Politico’s Tara Palmeri reported:

While some of the biggest talent at Fox News have skeptical views of Covid-19 vaccines, News Corp. honcho RUPERT MURDOCH is not messing around. At his 90th birthday party last week at Tavern on the Green, guests not only had to show proof of vaccination, they had to get a rapid nose swab test in order to enter.

Those might sound to you like sensible precautions for the birthday party of a 90-year-old man. But it’s the kind of thing that has sparked outrage on his cable news network, which employs a host who has doubted whether vaccines even work. Some Fox hosts have promoted vaccines, including Neil Cavuto, who recently urged viewers to get vaccinated after his own bout with Covid.

Of course, Fox News has its own vaccine requirement. The policy, which gives employees the choice of the vaccine or daily testing, has resulted in the vaccination of more than 90% of Fox Corporation staff.