ABC News censors RFK Jr. interview remarks on Covid vax problems, may have violated federal law
April 29, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a bigger problem for the Democrats and their media arm than they realized. The blowback from an interview with Linsey Davis that aired Thursday on ABC demonstrates the nature of the problem. You see, before airing the taped interview, ABC censored his comments attacking the effectiveness and safety of the Covid vaccines. Zachary Stieber of The Epoch Times (paywalled but available to AT readers by special arrangement) reports:
ABC News cut off a presidential candidate when he started talking about COVID-19 vaccines, raising concerns about censorship.
Robert Kennedy Jr., who recently announced his presidential run as a Democrat, sat down with ABC News for a lengthy interview released on April 27.
After airing clips of the interview, reporter Linsey Davis spoke to viewers.
“We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” she said. “We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview,” Davis said.
The claims in question were not listed, and ABC did not return a request for comment.
Davis indicated that at least one dealt with the effectiveness of the vaccines.
“Data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine has prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease,” Davis said. She did not provide any citations for the claim.
“He also made misleading claims about the relationship between vaccination and autism. Research shows that vaccines and the ingredients used in the vaccines do not cause autism, including multiple studies involving more than a million children and major medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Autism Speaks,” she added.
On Twitter, the candidate for the Democrats’ nomination accused the network of violating federal law:
47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates but Thursday, ABC showed its contempt for the law, democracy, and its audience by cutting most of the content of my interview with host Linsey Davis leaving only cherry-picked snippets and a defamatory disclaimer. Offering no evidence, @ABC justified this act of censorship by falsely asserting that I made “false claims.” In truth, Davis engaged me in a lively, informative, and mutually respectful debate on the government’s Covid countermeasures. I’m happy to supply citations to support every statement I made during that exchange. I’m certain that ABC’s decision to censor came as a shock to Linsey as well. Instead of journalism, the public saw a hatchet job. Instead of information, they got defamation and unsheathed Pharma propaganda. Americans deserve to hear the full interview so they can make up their own minds. How can democracy function without a free and unbiased press? As President, I will free FCC from its corporate captors and force the agency to follow the law by revoking the licenses of networks that put the mercantile ambitions of advertisers ahead of the public interest. #Kennedy24
47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates but Thursday, ABC showed its contempt for the law, democracy, and its audience by cutting most of the content of my interview with host Linsey Davis leaving only cherry-picked snippets and a defamatory…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 28, 2023
I rarely watch ABC, but I assume that it, like other network television broadcasters, airs lots of ads for pharmaceutical makers, who have become some of the biggest television advertisers of all ever since their ads were permitted (a bad idea, in my book).
Here is the interview:
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Photo credit: YouTube screengrab
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