Staff Reports
Fox News quietly added a familiar name to its roster this week, and the move already smells like a PR headache. Melissa DeRosa — described in contemporary coverage and Fox’s announcement as a “Fox News contributor” and a “veteran Democratic strategist” — will appear across Fox programming and on the new podcast “the Girls,” which Fox says debuts October 1. Critics say the hire raises real questions about judgment, timing, and the message Fox wants to send its audience.
What Fox announced and why it matters
Fox News promoted “the Girls” as a fresh podcast with a rotating lineup of women from different backgrounds. The network named Melissa DeRosa as one of the premiere guests and framed her simply as a Democratic strategist. That description is short on context, and context matters when you are giving a national platform to someone tied to one of the biggest pandemic controversies in recent memory.
Why critics are furious
What many commentators and families remember is DeRosa’s own admission on a February 2021 call with Democratic state lawmakers: “We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.” That line — and the wider nursing-home story — is why conservatives and victims’ families have reacted with anger and disbelief to Fox’s decision to hire her.
The official findings in plain English
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report concluded the state’s publicly reported nursing-home data did not include residents who were transferred to hospitals and later died, meaning the official figures materially undercounted total resident deaths. The New York State Assembly later reported that the governor’s office substantially revised a Department of Health draft and that the published version omitted thousands of deaths that occurred after hospital transfers. Those are not partisan talking points; they are the documentary bases for the criticism.
Fox needs to answer the simple question: why?
Fox is free to bring diverse voices onto its platforms, and a network that prides itself on sparring with the left can also open the mic to a Democrat who now criticizes the party’s far left. But platforming someone who admitted to “freezing” data during a public-health crisis requires an explanation. Was this a talent grab for ratings? A genuine effort at balance? Or a case of headline-chasing without concern for victims and viewers? Fox should tell its audience what editorial safeguards are in place, because trust — once lost — is hard to earn back. And if the network wants to sell “no-holds-barred” conversation, it should be ready for the hard questions DeRosa must face on air, not just the softball lines in a press release.
