RFK Jr.’s Campaign Is Exposing Some of the Worst Offenders In Today’s Broken Media

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. certainly earned the right to make the rounds on American media as he polls in the double digits as a Democratic presidential candidate. His media tour, however, has been as much an indictment of the many influential voices who have uncritically promoted him as it has been about vetting his competency for the presidency – which is sorely lacking.

From Joe Rogan to Jordan Peterson to Greta Van Susteren, RFK Jr. has been gifted an unfettered platform to promote his long-held anti-vaccine rhetoric — by a group of people who have so embraced anti-establishment politics they allow his wild claims to go unchecked. Rogan, whose open disdain for actual experts, even went so far as to use RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine ranting as a cudgel to try and pressure a renowned scientist into publicly debating the value of vaccines.

Kennedy, running against President Joe Biden as a Democrat, peaked at 20 percent support, compared to Biden’s 60 percent support, in CNN’s May poll. His poll numbers have landed him headline-grabbing interviews, primarily in right-leaning media.

In recent weeks he joined the Daily Wire’s Peterson for a sitdown interview, where he claimed that chemicals in the water supply were turning America’s kids trans. During his sitdown with Rogan later in June, RFK Jr. claimed that WiFi was causing cancer and that Russia had weaponized WiFi radiation. With Van Susteren on Newsmax, RFK Jr. claimed that China is developing “ethnic bioweapons” to target certain races and that the U.S. is “doing the same thing.” “We have been collecting Chinese DNA, Russian DNA specifically for that,” RFK Jr. ranted as Van Susteren just sat there and eventually ended the interview by noting he had a “big foreign policy speech” coming up — not even attempting to question the allegation America is plotting to use ethnic bioweapons.

In fact, at no point in these interviews did hosts push back hard against RFK Jr.’s unfounded claims or challenge him on his past rhetoric, which includes linking vaccinations to the Holocaust. RFK Jr. now represents a trend in American media, in which distrust of experts has led to an embrace of figures once pushed to the fringes of popular discourse — as their claims have never been based in reality.

Rogan was somewhat skeptical at first of RFK Jr. claiming “Wi-Fi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier.” But then Rogan turned to his producer Jamie Vernon and had him Google it. RFK Jr. sat there uncomfortably for a few seconds until Vernon found a link from the Environmental Health Trust to support his claim. Vernon did note he was still trying to “find the validity” of the article, but Rogan just went with it, read a bit from the article and in a matter of seconds was convinced enough to conclude, “We gotta get rid of Wi-Fi!”

RFK Jr. ran through a litany of conspiracy theories while on with Rogan, one of the most popular podcasters in the country, who Spotify is reportedly paying $200 million for some three and a half years, and openly spouted anti-vaccine falsehoods – including the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. Rogan did not push back on those claims and continued the interview approvingly.

The interview eventually ended with RFK Jr. going so far as to claim the CIA assassinated both his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, then-senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and that he believes the CIA is likely now trying to kill him.

The warm media embrace of a well-known crackpot didn’t stop there.

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld reacted on The Five to RFK Jr.’s interview, saying “I admire him” and “think he’s one of the most persuasive candidates out there.” He offered a very subtle qualifier, arguing RFK Jr. needs to “delineate between some of the things that he believes truly are happening and some of the things that he’s exploring in his brain on Rogan.” Gutfeld was quickly called out online for rank hypocrisy: in the past he had raged against anti-vaxxers, even once accusing “moral coward” Jim Carrey of “killing more people than all the rifles combined” with his anti-vaccine views in 2013.

Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, on the other hand, actually pushed back on RFK Jr. during an interview in early June in which the presidential contender accused the U.S. of killing “350,000 Ukrainian kids.”

“But we’re not doing that, right? That’s the Russians doing that,” Cavuto replied calmly, possibly assuming RFK Jr. had misspoken. RFK Jr. did not retract his statement and launched into another rant.

RFK Jr., like Donald Trump before him, clearly poses a challenge to a media that has struggled to cover popular figures with a shameless disregard for facts. ABC News drew the wrath of vaccine-skeptical conservatives in April when it said it had edited out his vaccine misinformation from a sit-down with anchor Linsey Davis. CNN’s Jake Tapper told a podcast this week he would not host a town hall event with RFK Jr. as he “spreads dangerous misinformation about childhood vaccines.” YouTube pulled down Peterson’s interview with him for the same reason.

But, clearly RFK Jr. – who had faced de-platforming before the pandemic – will still be able to get his message out even if the media were to outright “cancel” him for spreading falsehoods related to public health. He has boosters on the far-right and the far-left, from Steve Bannon to Max Blumenthal, and in tech circles, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. He has also announced he will begin doing a show on Rumble, the right-wing answer to Youtube, and is even slated to appear before the GOP-led House Weaponization Committee on July 20th. NewsNation will host RFK Jr. for a town hall on Wednesday, which will hopefully be an opportunity for the candidate to be pressed on his controversial stances.

So, while RFK Jr. doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon we can only hope that those in the media learn quickly how to push back against claims of WiFi causing “leaky brain,” explain to the public the historic good vaccines have done for society, and do better than Joe Rogan just Googling it.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.