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- The White House praised Fox for its new vaccine-or-test mandate, which is stricter than the federal policy.
- Fox announced Tuesday it will require employees to either be vaccinated or tested daily.
- Biden announced last week that employers of 100-plus people must require vaccination or weekly testing.
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The White House praised one of its top media critics, Fox News, for announcing an even stricter vaccine-or-test mandate than the administration's new federal policy for employers.
Fox Corporation announced on Tuesday that it will "soon" roll out daily COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated employees and those who haven't revealed their status to the company, CNN reported. The company, which has asked its employees to submit their vaccination status, also revealed that 90% of its employees confirmed they'd been immunized against the coronavirus.
Last week, Biden announced that all employers with more than 100 employees must mandate vaccines or weekly testing. Fox previously required certain "essential" employees to undergo regular testing. The White House urged Fox on Tuesday to inform its audience about the effectiveness of such policies, which the network's right-wing hosts regularly condemn on air.
"Today's news from Fox News follows a trend we're seeing across the country: vaccination and testing requirements work," a White House spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday. "We are glad they have stepped up to protect their workforce and strengthen the economy, and we encourage them convey to their audience that these types of practices will protect their employees, their communities, and the economy."
This is in addition to Fox's policy that only vaccinated employees can remove their masks in some work settings. All employees must be masked in small, confined indoor settings.
During his announcement of the administration's new COVID-19 policies last week, Biden cited Fox as an example of a company that had already implemented stringent virus policies.
While Fox Corp. has long implemented standard coronavirus policies to protect its employees, many of the network's most prominent personalities slam these very same policies as "authoritarian" and discriminatory on air. Tucker Carlson and other hosts have also frequently dismissed the science around the vaccine and featured guests making false claims about the shots' efficacy.
Carlson has also compared vaccine passports to "Jim Crow" racial segregation laws and likened inquiring about someone's vaccination status to asking them whether they've been infected with HIV or what their favorite sex positions are.
"Medical Jim Crow has come to America," he said. "If we still had water fountains, the unvaccinated would have separate ones."
A spokesperson for Fox Corp. didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.