we'll be talking to the air france ceo ben smith about how the outbreak is weighing on airlines. interact with the chart shown using gtv . this is bloomberg. ♪

joining our conversation, "the new york times" media columnist that wrote that story ben smith and formernt director of counter intelligence at the fbi frank faglusi. ben, your reporting is incredible on this topic. take me through all of it. >> there's been a number of different tones on fox as the crisis progressed and it began actually with tucker carlson, sean hannity treating it sear sli but -- seriously but in february they went into attacks on the media which was the president's own position and i think sort of missed the underlying story, the political story, the media story, pushed the actual story of a virus and a pandemic to the side so, you know, when hannity says this is the latest hoax, i don't think he thinks the virus is a hoax. he thinks that the media coverage transcended what's happening to people on the ground and for a few weeks in there really basic down playing what is obviously become a massive health crisis. >> ben, so you paint this vivid picture of susan scott, a fox executive, very senior, does she run fox news now? >> she is the ceo. >> at a time when -- at a

and joining me is ben smith, media columnist for "the new york times.."cribe for me the trajectory of fox's approach to this story and i think we're entering phase three but it has had two phases of nothing to see here, this is the democrats, and now let's get serious. >> i think we're entering phase four actually chris, it began with fox to the degree they talked about it saying this is a serious threat, tucker carlson, very serious about it, but even somebody like sean hannity saying we're concerned about this, he had fauci early on in february and what happened was criticism of donald trump's response and this got processed at fox the way every story, a lot of stories of cable news in general which is the latest political fight, and all of the coverage was really of the media. very little of the coverage was of the disease. i'm not sure sean was trying to call the disease a hoax. i i think he was trying to say this is the latest media attack but when you watch that channel and you think about republican politics right now, a huge share of what is going

guy: we are here with ben smith, the ceo of air france. thank you very much indeed. good afternoon. he story is what is happening with coronavirus. last week airline stocks had a very tough week. what is going on? what does demand look like on a day-to-day basis? ben: in the beginning of february we saw a steep decline in demand to and from china. many client suspended service to china, air france being one of them. we are working on our planet how we resume service to that region in the coming weeks and coming months. that has certainly bottomed out. we have seen a reduction in demand in italy because of increased cases in northern italy. , southt of our network america, united states, north america, south africa, and the rest of the african continent are pretty stable. how much was china down, how much are you seeing northern italy down? stopped 100% of our operations. guy: before that, what to demand look like? ben: when the virus first came to be we saw significant decline. as soon as we got a good understanding of what was happening, we suspended. guy: was it demand led or you m

ben smith in the new york times a couple of days ago laid that out that it's not just that some of the talk show hosts like particularly sean hannity and laura ingram. we're calling this a hoax saying of the dead are responsible for that what the democrats were saying was more dangerous than any virus and basically just dismissing the whole thing which of course donald trump was doing too that nobody. called up you know the new laughlin murdoch who's the new head of fox news nobody called these people at these hosts up and said hey this is a public health problem you know put politics aside and just talk about you better take this seriously i think we're all grateful i record carson our old friend from c.n.n. tucker carlson was the one who was saying this is serious guys you got to stop just making fun of it and he went down tomorrow largo so he could talk to tropic got trampled trump aside and took ottoman to changing his tune in on this i mean tucker carlson may have ended up saving a lot of lives. because trump listen to him thank god. the mayor of new york bill de blasio said he ha

ben smith, 3:30 coverage time. this is bloomberg. ♪ >> this is bloomberg day break.one do not. >> and i am in zurich. so here is what you need to know for the trading day ahead. it is super tuesday, and the former vice president, joe biden has picked up three endorsements from former rivals. so super?it i will get my words out. it is a cluster. got excited obama an airplane with so yims. >> good morning, man us. it is not just any tuesday in america. it is super tuesday. 14 states hold primaries. here are the states in play. alabama, arkansas, california, colorado, maine, massachusetts, minnesota, north carolina, oklahoma, tennessee, texas, utah, vermont and virginia. they will award 1,357 pledge del gates. that is about a third of the total. the big prize is california with 415 seats at stake. it is followed by texas with 228. populous the two most stays. depending on the outcome, it could trim the crowded field or prolong the fight into the summer. it is a big tuesday. we will all be watching to see what happens. >> thank you. here to give also some insight on what

ben smith joins us.ut with his inaugural column for the paper entitled "why the success of the "new york times" may be bad for journalism"? >> and you walk into the newsroom. everybody shakes your hand. >> great story idea. >> says welcome to the team. you release your first article that says, the "new york times" is bad for america. bad for journalism. bad for western civilization. i'm wondering, did they all nod, shake your hand and say, nice knowing you buddy? it's gotten a lot of buzz. it's a great article. >> today is actually my first day and nick confessore on your set i'm hoping will walk me into the building's i don't even have a key card or anything. we'll see. >> you need some protection. it's fascinating. >> pretty gutsy. >> got to say, such a i must say, my big takeaway from it -- obviously, concerned about media consolidation, but you paint an extraordinary story of just an unbelievable turnaround in the "new york times"? >> yeah, it is -- i think what has happened is the "new york times" h

smith. —— that is not far away now. we are going to keep an eye on that for you. they could be any moment. we will return to the house of commons when that happens. bend april until early april. here's your business headlines on afternoon live stock markets in europe have opened higher following sharp falls yesterday, when shares saw the biggest falls since the 2008 but in new york and london shares have this tipped back into the red, after a slump of nearly 8% in the previous session. markets were battered on monday in reaction to the threat of an oil price war between russia and saudi arabia and fears over the spread of coronavirus. several big banks, including rbs and tsb say they'll allow customers to defer mortgage and loan repayments for up to 3 months for customers hit by coronavirus. they'll also waive early closure charges on savings accounts and refund credit card cash advance fees so customers can access their money without penalty. the eu says it will temporarily ease the rules on airport slots — to prevent so—called ‘ghost flights'. a slump in bookings has forced some airlines, including virgin atlantic, to run near—empty flights — just