We document a causal effect of the conservative Fox News Channel in the USA on physical distancing during COVID-19 pandemic. We measure county-level mobility covering all US states and District of Columbia produced by GPS pings to 15–17 million smartphones and zip-code-level mobility using Facebook location data. Using the historical position of Fox News Channel in the cable lineup as the source of exogenous variation, we show that increased exposure to Fox News led to a smaller reduction in distance traveled and a smaller increase in the probability of staying home after the national emergency declaration in the USA. Our results show that slanted media can have a harmful effect on containment efforts during a pandemic by affecting people’s behavior.

我们记录了美国保守的福克斯新闻频道对 COVID-19 大流行期间保持身体距离的因果影响。我们通过对 15-1700 万部智能手机的 GPS ping 产生的覆盖美国所有州和哥伦比亚特区的县级流动性以及使用 Facebook 位置数据的邮政编码级流动性进行测量。利用福克斯新闻频道在有线电视节目中的历史地位作为外生变异的来源，我们发现，在国家紧急状态声明后，增加对福克斯新闻的接触导致旅行距离的减少较小，留在家中的概率的增加较小在美国。我们的研究结果表明，有倾向性的媒体可能会影响人们的行为，从而对大流行期间的遏制工作产生有害影响。