Editor's Note: This article is an edited version of "Fox's Fake News Contagion", which was first published on the New York Times on March 31, 2020. It's written by Kara Swisher, who is a contributing opinion writer for New York Times. The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc people's lives worldwide, news coverage has varied greatly in terms of epidemic severity. But, because people depend on their initiative to choose media outlets, such reports might have a huge impact, positive or negative, on their social behavior.

Kara Swisher, a contributing opinion writer for New York Times, said that Fox News has "spent too long spraying its viewers with false information about the coronavirus pandemic," which led to families losing their beloved ones.

She also uses her personal experience to prove how an extreme influence has been exerted on her mother. No matter how Swisher warned her mother to stay home, the latter turned a blind eye on such texts and made light of the disease.

"My mother said that she is going to block my number if I don't stop to me over the phone several weeks ago from Florida, after I had texted her the umpteenth chart about the spread of coronavirus across the country. All of these graphs had scary lines that went up and to the right. She ignored my texts, so I had switched to calling her to make sure she had accurate information in those critical weeks at the end of February and the beginning of March."

Actually, Fox News audience is basically made of elderly people, the most vulnerable to the infection. They rely less on network information or social media, and Fox News is their main news source.

Therefore, Swisher's mother kept living her life as usual, going out with friends and shopping, without taking the vicious coronavirus disease seriously and thinking her daughter was making a storm in a teacup. "You're the one who is going to get sick, if you don't stop working so much," said Swisher's mother. But, "thankfully, Mom had not gone as far as claiming the coronavirus is a plot to hurt President Trump — a theory pushed by some at Fox News heavily at first."

The article also pointed out that the misinformation is called "magical thinking and wishful ignorance" that continues as the worst scenario is not something that people intends to consider, and "it happens quite often when it comes to dire health information."

However, "given the growing number of cases and deaths in the United States, Fox stopped playing down the crisis … Fox News finally got much more serious in its reporting on the coronavirus, as has Mr. Trump. Convinced by experts' new estimates that millions of Americans would be at risk for infection and hundreds of thousands at risk for dying if he prematurely reopened the country, Mr. Trump and Fox have gone into reverse."

The author also stated that "it was when Mr. Trump and Fox News initially shifted to a story line about getting back to work that the problems with Fox really sank in for her. She now seems to realize that she bears some of the burden as a news consumer, though she remains a Fox News acolyte."

It is every media outlet's responsibility to provide their readers and audience with the truth, in particular at a time when an infectious disease is spreading extensively in almost every country in the world.

Using eye-catching headlines in news should not be regarded as a trick to bring out a gimmick stunt, but arouse people's attention on a public health emergency and take precautions accordingly.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)