Scrolling through the articles on the NYTimes app it was impossible to find the newspaper of record’s coverage of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement that he will be seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2024. There’s a very good reason for that. It wasn’t there. A piece reporting on the fact that a member of the nation’s most storied political family was once again running for president didn’t rate the same visibility on the Times’ app as features with titles like “What Would You Do for a Taylor Swift Sweatshirt?” and “An A.I. Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weeknd’ Rattles the Music World.” 

It wasn’t until I came across a tweet on my Twitter app that I was led to the Times’ article on Kennedy’s announcement and the event that was held at a ballroom in Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel.

I’d woken up to the speech. Literally. When I groggily picked up my phone and clicked on Twitter I saw the event being broadcast (not sure broadcast is the right word for it) on Twitter Spaces and caught the entire speech, with the exception of a few momentary glitches, from start to finish. 

To say that the Times’ piece, written by Trip Gabriel, the newspaper’s former editor of the Sunday paper’s “Styles” section, did not reflect the speech I’d heard RFK Jr. deliver would be an understatement worthy of, well, the New York Times’ own penchant for slanting the news and burying important story angles behind walls of misinformation. Gabriel dismissed the event as being a gathering of those with a “shared skepticism about vaccines and the pharmaceutical industry.”

“Mr. Kennedy is the latest in a history of fringe presidential aspirants from both parties who run to bring attention to a cause, or to themselves.” 

That statement is as stunningly off key and out of tempo with the era we’re living in as anything I’ve ever read in the Times. The journalist who revitalized the paper’s Sunday Style section “into a multifaceted presentation of fashion, lifestyle, entertainment and celebrity news” continues:

“For Mr. Kennedy, that cause is vaccine skepticism… at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, he sought to undermine public trust in vaccines.” 

Gabriel states that “Both Facebook and Instagram took down accounts of a group he [Kennedy] runs for spreading medical misinformation.”

First off, it’s hard to read the perspective presented by Mr. Gabriel and reconcile it with the calendar. It’s now 2023. Skepticism of Covid-19 vaccines is a widespread feature of the American political landscape. 

Skepticism of Covid-19 vaccines exists primarily because of the myriad instances of the American people being presented with false and misleading TRUE AND ACTUAL medical misinformation, fed to us by our government, its national health care apparatus, and the establishment news media. Whether it was about efficacy or the prevention of transmission of the virus, medical misinformation told to the public about the vaccines was a feature and not a bug throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. 

There’s so many instances of this happening that I’m not going to bother detailing them. That’s not what this piece of mine is about. It’s also completely unnecessary. If you’re reading this you already know how very often something we were told about the Covid-19 vaccines through official government medical channels here in the US turned out to be incorrect. 

Gabriel also characterized RFK Jr.’s speech as “rambling.” He highlighted the fact that many of Kennedy’s own family members don’t agree with his positions on vaccines. He quotes Bob Shrum, who claims, according to the reporting here that, “Kennedy’s attacks on Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and the federal government’s top medical and scientific agencies would have infuriated his uncle. [deceased former Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Ted Kennedy]  

This is essentially what the New York Times wants the public’s takeaway to be from its news reporting on the candidacy declaration and near two-hour content-rich speech by the nephew of one assassinated president and the son of an assassinated candidate for the same high office. 

Stick a pin in the assassination angle for a moment.

So I’ve already said that this Times piece reporting on Kennedy’s officially announcing his seeking the presidency in 2024 did not reflect the speech I heard nor the event that I witnessed on admittedly shaky video feeds coming out of Boston. The speech I heard was brilliant. It was not rambling. It was densely filled with the Kennedy intelligence, the Kennedy grace, the self-deprecation, the humility, the humor, the vision, the honesty and the TRUTH, and the exact version of patriotic inspiration that this country is so desperate for. And, make no mistake, Kennedy’s speech demonstrated innately brilliant political instincts. (We’ll talk more about this here on The Lost Democrat very soon.)

OF COURSE this speech was not broadcast live on CNN, MSNBC, or any other national TV news network. Because if it had been carried live on any of the mainstream media outlets, Robert F. Kennedy would already be the odds-on favorite to be the next president of the United States. Because this speech was something the American people have been starving for for generations. It was that good. It was a tonic reminder of all that we wish we could be as a nation and certainly as a Democratic Party that is supposed to represent the people of this country.  

Kennedy appeared to be speaking without a teleprompter. Off the top of his head. Yet the speech had so many signature quote lines that it could and will, I’m sure, be mined for things he might say at his inaugural, should he get that far. Also, the stories he told, so many stories, graphically revealing just how qualified and experienced he actually is to be president and how ready he is to replace the low-grade quality of politicians we’ve been electing to high office now for most of the last two decades. 

Kennedy spoke the truth and nothing but the truth for almost two hours. One highlight that stood out to me was his passionate insistence that the current government of the United States has, not just abandoned adherence to the Constitution, but is actively working to undermine it and the protections it affords the citizens of this country. But, Kennedy asserted, “The Constitution was built for hard times.” 

Know this. The Times piece on Kennedy’s big announcement is a gross misrepresentation of what actually happened in Boston yesterday. It’s author lies about the speech RFK Jr. so eloquently delivered. The comments to the article, so few being evidence of the low online visibility of the piece on the newspaper’s website and app, reflect the opinion of those who read this article but who certainly did not seek out or listen to the actual speech for themselves. 

Kathleen from San Luis Obispo writes: “This is just sad. His father and uncle ran for president with soaring rhetoric–not two-hour rambling speeches–and a vision of America as a beacon of hope for the world. 

Had Kathleen actually heard RFK Jr.’s speech, she would have known that her words were an exact characterization of what that speech contained. 

Brooke’s Mama from NYS wrote: “I hope the Kennedy family arranges an intervention soon. It’s a sad situation when someone has gone off the rails so publicly.”

One comment, however, was truly problematic. No one needs to be reminded of the fate of President John F. Kennedy or his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Their assassinations in the 1960s turned this country upside down and we’ve never fully recovered from those deadly interventions in our elective destiny. But despite the impact those tragedies have had on the country, the world, and certainly the Kennedy family, the New York Times comment moderators saw fit to allow a Mr. Mike from NY to offer this suggestion regarding Bobby Kennedy’s son: 

“Maybe he should share the fate of his betters.”