• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 12, 2020

The cognitive dissonance continues at America’s most-watched news operation.

Some Fox News hosts "are echoing President Trump’s call to 'reopen the country' and urging people to get back to work in the face of the coronavirus threat. But Fox’s offices won’t be opening anytime soon.”

So reports Brian Stelter of Fox rival CNN Business, citing a memo on Friday from John Nallen, Fox Corp’s COO, that extended the company’s work-from-home directive until June 15.

Whether that date holds or not, any reopening would happen in phases, according to the memo. But one Fox source told Stelter that it wouldn’t be surprising if it were extended out further, perhaps until late summer.

“While some [Fox] hosts have expressed caution and emphasized the need for safety, others have been gung-ho about getting back to normal, even while broadcasting from their homes or other socially-distant locations,” Stelter writes. It’s understandable that people “want a way out of this [stay-at-home scenario] ASAP,” and “different approaches are probably appropriate in different places,” he adds, “but it's strange to see Fox stars hosting from home, albeit in hard-hit areas like New York, telling viewers that it's time to get back out.”

Fox News, like other networks, is already operating with only small numbers of technical personnel and some anchors working from New York headquarters, he points out. And “Fox is just like many other companies in its decision to extend the work from home period,” having decided that “now is not the time to send workers back into offices en masse.”

CNN itself, for instance, has told “the vast majority” of staff who have been working from home since March that they won’t be returning to their offices until September, at earliest.

Other examples: Google has extended its work-from-home directive until at least June 1, and Facebook has told those who can work from home to continue to do so through the end of the year.