Bias Watch: Axios founder flagged for alleging conservative 'information inequality'

With the Neutral Zone Infraction, Just the News tries to do its part to maintain the line between fact and opinion in American journalism by blowing the whistle each week on an egregious example of slanted coverage by reporters. This week's offender: Axios's Jim VandeHei:

Axios CEO and cofounder Jim VandeHei on Thursday said that Republican governors waited to take certain actions in response to the coronavirus crisis because they were listening to President Trump, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and conservatives on social media.

VandeHei, who made the comments on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, used the term “information inequality,” asserting that while accurate information is available, the governors were receiving “sort of noise and news pollution” in what he called an “information bubble.”

"What you're seeing here, and this is a bigger problem for society, is information inequality," VandeHei said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "Like why did [Florida Republican Gov. Ron] DeSantis do what he did, why did Georgia wait so long? It's because they were listening to President Trump up until the last five or six days, they were watching Fox News, they were listening to Rush Limbo [sic], and they were following conservatives on Twitter or social media, all of whom were downplaying this. The information was there, but in that information bubble they were basically getting a lot of sort of noise and news pollution.”

VandeHei added that this entails “huge consequences,” as steps could have been taken earlier.

When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced that he would issue a shelter in place order and an order to close K-12 public schools for the remainder of the school year, he said that he had just learned that COVID-19 can be transmitted by asymptomatic people.

VandeHei said that this information was already known, remarking that “we’ve all known that anybody who’s asymptomatic can, can pass it on to others and often pass it on to many others.”

Asserting that the issue has just "been rectified really in the last five or six days," he said: "You have seen a different tone from the president and you have seen a different tone from more people on Fox News." 

VandeHei said that conservatives with large followings on social media websites “are still spreading nonsense, still a lot of like, ah it's a big government trying to jam down their dumb rules on us,” adding that this "has massive consequences.”

“Short of a national declaration that everyone has to sit in, you’re gonna have states...who sit out," VandeHei said. "And I think that’s why if you want to get to the low-end of that projection, you have to take strong national steps.”

He said the president does not want to take the steps because “he doesn’t want to own the whole thing” and because “there’s people inside the White House who just don’t like mandating what all the states have to do.”

VandeHei’s assertion that the president “doesn’t want to own the whole thing” appears to be a speculative statement about Trump’s motivations. And while it is possible that the Republican governors were influenced by listening to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and conservatives on social media, VandeHei cites no underlying reporting to substantiate this. Nor does VandeHei make much effort to back up his sweeping generalization that Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and conservatives on social media were "all" in largely unspecified ways "downplaying" the pandemic.

Just the News attempted to reach out to Axios and Jim VandeHei for comment but has not received a response.