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“People develop really close relationships with podcasts,” said Evelyn Douek, senior research fellow at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute. “This is a parasocial environment. There’s something about sound that people are really into. ”
Marc Bernier, a talk radio host in Daytona Beach, Fla., whose program is available to download or stream on iHeart and Apple’s digital platforms, was among the talk radio presenters who died of Covid-19 complications after expressing his anti-vaccine views on iHeart and Apple’s digital platforms. programs. The deaths made national news and sparked a series of comments on social media. Less noticeable was the industry that helped give them an audience.
In a June episode, Mr. Bernier, after referring to unvaccinated people, said: “I am one of them. Judge me if you want.” The following month, he quoted a false claim he “45,000 people they died from vaccination.” In his latest Twitter post on 30 July, Mr. Bernier accused the government of “acting like Nazis” for promoting Covid-19 vaccines.
Jimmy DeYoung Sr., whose program is on iHeart, Apple, and Spotify, has died of Covid-19 complications after making his show a venue for false or misleading statements about vaccines. One of his frequent guests was Sam Rohrer, a former Pennsylvania state representative who made a sweeping false statement that likened the promotion of Covid-19 vaccines to Nazi tactics. “This is not a vaccine by definition,” Mr Rohrer said in an episode aired in April. “This is a permanent change in my immune system that God has created to deal with things that come this way.” Mr. DeYoung thanked his guest for his “insight”. Mr. DeYoung died four months later.
Buck Sexton, host of a show co-hosted by Premiere Networks, an iHeart subsidiary, recently theorized that bulk Covid-19 vaccines could accelerate the mutation of the virus into more dangerous strains. He made this suggestion while appearing on another Premiere Networks show, “The Jesse Kelly Show.”
The theory seems to have its roots in a 2015 article on vaccines for a chicken disease called Marek’s disease. Its author is Andrew Read, professor of biology and entomology at Penn State University. told research has been “misinterpreted” by anti-vaccine activists. He added that it was determined that Kovid-19 vaccines significantly reduced the transmission, while chickens vaccinated with the Marek disease vaccine could transmit the disease. Mr Sexton did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’re seeing so many public radio stations doing great local work to spread good health information,” said media professor Mr. Loviglio. “On the other hand, you mostly see the AM radio dial and their podcast counterparts are the Wild West of the airwaves.”
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