- A New Jersey academy is offering free registrations to people who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
- The academy’s owners received positive coverage on Fox News last year, before and after being arrested for violating the state’s closure order.
- One of the academy’s owners spread a conspiracy theory at Fox in August and was not challenged or corrected by the show’s host.
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A New Jersey academy, whose owners were arrested last year for refusing to comply with state orders related to the pandemic, is now offering free registrations to individuals who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr were arrested and fined last summer after keeping the indoor gym open for months, violating the governor’s closing order. They have appeared on Fox almost 20 times since the start of the pandemic, liberal surveillance group Media Matters reported.
Atilis co-owner Ian Smith announced earlier this week that his academy would encourage people to reject vaccines after the donut chain Krispy Kreme announced that it is offering free donuts to customers receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Given that @krispykreme gave free donuts to receive the CVD injection, here at @TheAtilisGym we are giving free subscriptions to everyone who is not vaccinated,” Smith tweeted on Tuesday.
Fox News closely covered the gym’s efforts to defy state laws and several of the network’s presenters praised Smith and co-owner Frank Trumbetti. When Smith called New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy a “tyrant” who “ran[s] out of fear, “Fox presenter Tucker Carlson called it” the most moving thing I’ve heard in a long time “and called Smith” a brave man “.
During an interview in August on Fox & Friends, Trumbetti promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that government officials wanted to close gyms and health clubs so that Americans would become less healthy and more vulnerable to the virus.
“Honestly, I think they are really looking to guarantee a peak and a peak in the COVID cases in the fall, so that they can shut down again,” he said. “That is my honest belief. If they open gyms, they will know that everyone will visit them, they will be healthy, they will feel better and they will build their immune system, and they will have less peak in the fall.”
At the end of this segment, host Brian Kilmeade thanked the two men for “fighting for so many other people”.
A Fox News spokesman did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.