“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart spent most of his opening segment on Monday torching the news media for its wall-to-wall coverage of hantavirus.
Stewart seemed to suggest that many outlets continued to push a panicked narrative, despite most experts saying it was unlikely to be an emergency.
“The point is, some people may get pretty sick, but forget COVID. This ain’t no pandemic. Hell, this hantavirus, it’s not even in monkeypox territory. But, I guess reality don’t sell papers,” Stewart said before playing a barrage of clips featuring news anchors prodding infectious disease experts on whether this will be another pandemic.
He then played clips of those same experts, all saying, in one form or another, that hantavirus’ risk to the general public remains low.
“Expert upon expert, scientist upon scientist, very transparently explained why this illness, while a serious illness, is a low-level public health threat. Their words went a long way to easing the concerns of a curious public. And Lord knows the news can’t let that happen,” Stewart said.
“The Daily Show” host seemed particularly exasperated by the media’s coverage of the cruise passengers disembarking from their ship in Spain.
“The news experts say stay calm, but the news media says no, I believe we prefer panic,” Stewart said.
Watch Stewart’s full opening segment from Monday’s show here:
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