Newsom named Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, WarRoom, Infowars as chief propagandists
By Katy Grimes, February 17, 2022 4:43 pm
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his new plan to manage the COVID-19 “endemic” Thursday. He said California would be moving to a more long-term plan for the virus as immunity against it builds.
Newsom’s new endemic plan, known as SMARTER (shots, masks, awareness, readiness, testing, education, Rx treatments) changes up how California is responding to pandemic.
Last week Gov. Newsom issued a press release announcing as part of his proposed COVID-19 Emergency Response Package that he signed a $1.9 billion early action measure to meet the state’s immediate COVID response needs, “including funding to boost testing capacity and vaccination efforts, support frontline workers, strengthen the health care system and battle misinformation, with a focus on the hardest-hit communities.”
During Thursday’s press conference in Fontana, CA, the governor addressed what he referred to as the COVID “propaganda machine,” naming Alex Jones’ Infowars, Steve Bannon’s WarRoom, One America News, Newsmax and Fox News as the propagandists.
The governor said OAN was a “great disinformation spreader,” and referred to Fox News’ “propaganda lineup.” Newsom even said that people died because of the misinformation spread by these news outlets.
When asked what he plans to do about this, Newsom said he already has “a team of people at HHS battling in the trenches and on social media trying to push back.”
He announced that he is creating “a brand new unit in State Government working full time on this.”
Gov. Newsom said he and his team created COVID-19 “Mythbuster” videos while combating misinformation, all of which is in partnership with 250 ethnic media outlets.
Newsom added, “We are asking the people who promote the lies and misinformation to stop.”
Gov. Newsom also said he would be “Scaling back Executive Order provisions and terminating provisions as they cease to be necessary,” but no specifics were given.
You can watch the press conference here:
Katy GrimesKaty Grimes, the Editor of the California Globe, is a long-time Investigative Journalist covering the California State Capitol, and the co-author of California’s War Against Donald Trump: Who Wins? Who Loses?
