As businesses across the United States shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, one industry is remaining open to tell people that those other businesses are closing: the news media.

But even the press is taking measures to keep themselves safe from infection and inform the public to do the same. Fox & Friends demonstrated that this morning.

Instead of appearing on their signature curved couch, the three cohosts—Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy, and Ainsley Earhardt—telecasted from different parts of the Fox Studio. Doocy still sat on the sofa, while Kilmeade was one floor below, and Earhardt appeared elsewhere behind a lectern.

“To be responsible, to show social distancing, all three of us are apart—same studio, plenty of distance,” Kilmeade said, opening the broadcast. Normally the three of them sit just eighteen inches apart on the sofa for the hour’s long morning chats. The Center for Disease Control now recommends that individuals keep at least six feet of space between each other.

“We’re doing exactly the same thing people all across America are trying to do, and that is stay away from each other because you don’t want to get infected and you don’t want to spread infection,” said Doocy.

“We have a responsibility to slow down this virus and to think of other people during this time,” intoned Earhardt. “And so, if you can keep your distance and prevent someone from getting close to you that might be sick, you can save your family, you can save the elderly and help our country as a nation.”

These new precautions come after Fox News was the recipient of major pushback due to the cavalier attitude some of its hosts and guests took in the first weeks of the pandemic. These dismissals were interpreted as purposely downplaying the threat to benefit the Donald Trump administration.

Under a segment entitled “Coronavirus Impeachment Scam,” Fox Business host Trish Regan said panic about the disease was being caused by Democrats “to encourage a market sell-off” and to “demonize and destroy the president.” Regan has since been removed from her primetime slot, with no timetable for her return.

This is in contrast with the stance taken by host Tucker Carlson, who has been pleading for the White House to take the coronavirus seriously before it grew out of control. “By then, this epidemic will have caused economic damage whose effects may dog us for years. People you know will get sick. Some may die. This is real,” he told viewers nine days ago.

Simultaneous with the news network he has a love-hate relationship with, Trump is taking new precautions to avoid catching the sickness. The president has returned to his pre-political preference of avoiding handshakes.

Hunter DeRensis is the senior reporter for the National Interest. Follow him on Twitter @HunterDeRensis.

Image: Fox News Channel anchor Sean Hannity poses for photographs as he sits on the set of his show "Hannity" at the Fox News Channel's studios in New York City, October 28, 2014.