“Wheel of Fortune’ host Pat Sajak has called out members of the media encouraging people facing joblessness and loss of income to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, in a tweet posted Sunday.
"When a disc jockey or a talk show host or a journalist who is being paid to work from his or her home tells people who can’t work, pay bills or pay their rent or mortgage to 'Stay home and be careful because we’re all in this together,' it’s okay to question the premise," he wrote.
Dozens of radio and TV talk show hosts have been forced to broadcast their segments from their homes due to the spread of COVID-19 while shows including 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' have been taped without an audience.
Meanwhile, outside the studio, people frustrated with stay-at-home measures have taken to the streets to protest and call on state government to re-open their economies. More than 36 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs since the outbreak and experts are expecting that number to surge, reported Fox News.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Sunday said the unemployment rate could jump to 25 percent and that those impacted the most are from lower-income houses. He added that 40 percent of those who were working in February and earning less than $40,000 per year have since lost their jobs.
Worsening the situation is that millions of Americans are still waiting to receive the unemployment benefits they were promised weeks after being laid-off. Among them is Scott Ross, a restaurant manager in Eldersburg, Maryland, who was let go after several years due to the state lockdown imposed by Governor Larry Hogan.
"For basically six weeks I’ve received nothing," he said.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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