The Mainstream Media’s Reign of Error: Correcting the Record about RFK Jr.’s ‘Deadly Immunity’

Introduction

On June 22, CNN anchor Jake Tapper published an article titled “RFK Jr.’s reign of error: Correcting the record about yet another false claim he just made”, in which he accuses Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of making “so many false and wild claims about any number of vital topics”, but “most dangerously about childhood vaccines”.

Tapper asserts that Kennedy “mangles” and is “untethered” to “facts”, and in particular, Kennedy’s “claims about autism and vaccines” and his allegation of “a massive conspiracy regarding thimerosal” are “spurious”, “since-disproven” and “thoroughly debunked”. Kennedy is “someone you cannot rely upon for facts, truth or accuracy.”[1]

Tapper’s argument centers around an article Kennedy wrote in 2005 titled “Deadly Immunity”, the summary description of which stated, “When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data—and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic.”[2]

That is the key conclusion from Kennedy’s article that Tapper wants us to believe is a baseless “conspiracy theory”.

Yet Tapper himself grossly deceives his readers, failing to identify any substantive errors in Kennedy’s article that would undermine its thesis, obfuscating key facts, deflecting attention from the documentary evidence Kennedy cited, and otherwise demonstrably lying about the article’s contents.

Jake Tapper’s Prior Coverage of “Deadly Immunity” for ABC News

The impetus for Tapper’s article was a podcast interview Mr. Kennedy did with Jordan Peterson published on June 5.[3] Kennedy and Tapper have conflicting accounts of how years ago, when he was working for ABC News, Tapper covered “Deadly Immunity”, which was jointly published by Salon and Rolling Stone on June 16, 2005.

Kennedy had previously discussed this interaction with Tapper in his book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, about the mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, as well as an article titled “The Day Jake Tapper Sold His Soul to Pharma”, published in The Defender, which is issued by Kennedy’s organization Children’s Health Defense.[4]

The substance of Kennedy’s account is that Tapper had seen a draft of “Deadly Immunity” and sought to do an exclusive exposé timed to air on the date of the article’s publication. Since Tapper seemed interested in getting the story out, Kennedy agreed and worked with the ABC News team on it; but then, the day before ABC’s companion piece was supposed to air, Tapper called Kennedy to inform him that ABC was pulling the story. After a delay, ABC did broadcast a story on the article, but one that repeated pharmaceutical industry propaganda and criticized Kennedy for writing the story.

Tapper confirms that he did contact Kennedy about doing a piece on his article, resulting in Tapper doing a remote phone interview with a TV crew in Kennedy’s office. He also confirms that he called Kennedy to let him know that ABC was holding the story. Tapper otherwise denies details of Kennedy’s account.

In his interview with Peterson, Kennedy said that he’d worked with the ABC team for “three weeks” on the story, which Tapper denies by saying it was “a few days of work”. In his Defender article, Kennedy described the duration as “several weeks”. Tapper’s version nevertheless happens to confirm what Kennedy wrote in Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, which was: “I spent days working with a team of enthusiastic reporters and technicians for the ABC story.”

Perhaps the “three weeks” was hyperbole, or perhaps the apparently conflicting durations are reconcilable because, while the actual preparation involved only a few days of work, it may have been three weeks from the time Tapper first proposed the story to Kennedy until the time it was supposed to air.

Importantly, Kennedy’s point remains that he was under the impression that ABC was interested in helping to get the story told in “Deadly Immunity” out to the public, and Tapper does not deny that he gave that impression to Kennedy.

Tapper also objects to Kennedy describing the ABC piece in the interview as a “documentary”. While this may have been hyperbole, Kennedy’s use of the word “documentary” also may have simply been a misstatement since he had just got done talking about having participated in the making of a documentary about the impacts of mercury in vaccines on neurodevelopmental disorders. Kennedy clearly had “documentary” on his mind because, immediately before bringing up the incident with Tapper, Kennedy said that Fox News refused to do a story on the documentary for fear of losing advertising dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, which was the thought that segued into his comments about ABC News.

In Kennedy’s account of the same episode in his book on thimerosal, he described ABC’s proposal as “a companion piece” to his article. He likewise described it as a “companion piece” and a “lengthy exposé” in his Defender article. The main point, which we can conclude to be true, is that Tapper did contact Kennedy about doing a show about the article.

Significantly, once again, Tapper does not deny that he portrayed himself to Kennedy as being sincere in wanting to get the story told in “Deadly Immunity” out to the public via the proposed ABC News story. His objections simply do not address the main substance of Kennedy’s version of events.

Tapper also denies that ABC killed the story on the grounds that, “For the record, the piece aired June 22, 2005.”

But, once again, this objection simply does not actually address Kennedy’s main point that the show that ultimately aired on ABC News was a hit piece on him instead of the promised story of government malfeasance and corruption.

While Kennedy does not mention that ABC News did ultimately air a piece on the article during his interview with Peterson, this is not because he denies the fact. On the contrary, he emphasized that fact himself in Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak.

Instead of the show originally promised, Kennedy wrote, “following about a one-week delay, the broadcaster aired a re-cut version on July 22 that repeated vaccine industry talking points and faulted me, as a lawyer, for trying to address issues that, the broadcaster suggested, should best be left to doctors and scientists. . . . Afterward, Tapper did not answer or return my phone calls.”

Similarly, in the Defender article, Kennedy wrote that instead of the originally promised story, ABC “changed tack” and, “following a one-week delay, the network duplicitously aired a hastily assembled puff piece promoting vaccines and assuring listeners that mercury-laden vaccines were safe.”

During his discussion with Jordan Peterson, Kennedy again mentions how Tapper refused to return his calls, and, once again, Tapper does not deny that he refused to answer Kennedy’s phone calls after airing a hit piece instead of the promised exposé.

Tapper’s objections to what Kennedy says during his interview with Jordan Peterson fail to address the substance of Kennedy’s version of events, and the key points of Kennedy’s that Tapper does not object to are highly instructive. To summarize:

• Tapper disputes how much time he spent working on the ABC News story but not that he presented himself to Kennedy as though sincere in wanting to get the “Deadly Immunity” story out to the public.
• Tapper denies that ABC wanted to do a “documentary” but not that he proposed an exclusive exposé to Kennedy to promote “Deadly Immunity”.
• Tapper denies that ABC “killed” the story on the grounds that ABC News did eventually broadcast a report about Kennedy’s article on June 22, 2005, but this objection simply sidesteps Kennedy’s point about how the show that ultimately aired was a pro-pharma propagandistic hit piece instead of the promised exposé on the government’s malfeasance and corruption.