New from me: The partisan Covid gap is worsening. Research using careful causal designs show that media messaging, in the form of Fox News, is leading Republicans to take the pandemic less seriously, resist vaccines, get sick and die. 1/
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/fox-news-is-…
Conservatives are more resistant to public health measures in general. We can see this in other countries. But the left-right gap is two-to-four times as large in the US as it is in other countries according to this Pew survey. 2/
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021…
As vaccines have become more easily accessible, Republicans have become the largest group holdout group. As a result, deaths in the Trumpiest parts of the US are more than 5 times higher than in the bluest counties (h/t @charles_gaba) 3/
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/fox-news-is-…
Unvaxxed Republican are less likely to believe that COVID is a big deal, and more likely to believe conspiracy theories, like the idea vaccines include microchips. 96% of them think that vaccines are a matter of personal choice, rather than a collective responsibility. 4/
Given the extreme nature of US conservative views about COVID, and the fact that it is a relatively new issue where people did not have strong prior beliefs, it seems reasonable to assume that elite and media messaging matters. Which brings us to Fox News. 5/
Social scientists spend much time trying to determine causality: i.e., whether Fox is driving the beliefs of its audience or merely catering to them. This is hard to sort out. A standard technique to do so is to look at channel position as a source of exogenous variation. 6/
What do these studies find? That being exposed to Fox News has a causal effect on COVID health behaviors and outcomes, making people less likely to isolate, use health products like masks, trust vaccines, and more likely to get sick and die. 6/ donmoynihan.substack.com/p/fox-news-is-…
It's bad that a lot of Americans are dying because they trust the bad public health messaging of Fox and other elites.

Even if you don't care about Fox viewers, the nature of the pandemic means we are all in the same boat. Its just that some people are trying to sink it. 7/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Don Moynihan

Don Moynihan Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @donmoyn

8 Dec
One of the big eye-openers for me in writing about administrative burdens is discovering the civic tech community. This is a great overview of the skills that they bring to the table in solving bureaucratic problems.
h/t @civilla @codeforamerica. nytimes.com/2021/12/08/us/…
There are tech horror stories to be sure, but this is a really nice example of how good tech interface can reduce psychological costs like stigma in administrative encounters. nytimes.com/2021/12/08/us/… Image
Its really nice to see great reporters like @JasonDeParle use their skills to explain this important but understudied aspect of how people interact with the state. Image
Read 5 tweets
8 Dec
This should be a bombshell story about political interference in research and teaching in Florida but it will likely get minimal attention beyond local coverage and concerned academics miamiherald.com/news/local/edu…
An investigative committee found clear evidence of chilling effects and a culture of fear at U Florida. But because political sponsors, and not students, are the ones who are silencing speech, the story doesn’t fit the woke narrative Image
You might recall coverage of professors who went public when they were told they could not participate in court cases involving the state about voting rights or COVID. Here, I explain why this is so dangerous. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/an-assault-o…
Read 9 tweets
7 Dec
When some people say they value free speech, what they really mean is they want students to sit mutely and endure speech they find objectionable.
Durham U. brought in a controversial speaker. Students walked out. The college head called them "pathetic." 🧵palatinate.org.uk/south-principa…
The head of the College invited his former roommate, Rod Liddle, a right-wing columnist with a history of saying offensive things.
Liddle then said some offensive things. The College head lectured the students about the value of freedom of speech, saying "he attacked nobody." 2/
Students walked out of the talk. As they did, the College head shouted “at South College, we value freedom of speech” and “pathetic.” His wife labeled the students "inadequate." 3/
Read 6 tweets
4 Dec
Analysis of news coverage: after a honeymoon period, press coverage of Biden has become as negative as the chaotic last six months of the Trump era. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… Image
Biden runs a normal administration. The last six months of Trump administration were extraordinarily negative, including an overt effort to undermine democracy. It is worrying that in an effort to appear neutral, the press cannot distinguish between the two. Image
The analysis measured the tone of the coverage. I'm sure that many journalists would say their job is not to introduce a tone into their analysis (but they do) and instead they just describe the facts. But description w/o judgment can normalize & amplifies the extraordinary. Image
Read 4 tweets
2 Dec
The pandemic has shown that teleworking can work for all sorts of organizations with employees performing all sorts of tasks.
Given the costs of the DC region, teleworking represents a real opportunity for the federal govt to recruit talented people who want to live elsewhere.
Its weird that someone from AEI would voice opposition to remote work since the AEI line on this has been that remote work is good, even for government.
TBF, here are Biggs arguments.

Most federal work is professional white collar work, which is exactly they type of work he does from Oregon. People notice if you miss deadlines, can't carry out assigned tasks, and not working with your team. aei.org/wp-content/upl…
Read 4 tweets
2 Dec
New from me: How the Biden administration is reducing administrative burdens both for public services - health care access, rental assistance, student loan forgiveness - and our interactions with private companies.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-biden-ad…
Much of what Biden is doing is reversing the increase of administrative burdens under the Trump admin. In health care, this means reinvigorating the Navigator program to enhance outreach and rolling back work requirements. 2/
Getting money out the door for an intergovernmental rental assistance program has been a big problem. Gene Sperling sped things up partly by encouraging states and localities to use self-attestation in place of detailed documentation requirements. 3/
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(