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The Media Is Reckoning With How to Cover RFK Jr.’s Presidential Run (www.vanityfair.com)

submitted 1 year ago by alyaza to c/politics

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

archive.is link, if you hit a paywall: https://archive.ph/RF9jn

Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets his first national town hall with NewsNation, as the media grapples with another conspiratorial candidate. “There’s a difference between giving him a town hall and just covering his candidacy,” one network executive says.

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[–] alyaza 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly, could we ignore him?

we can, but obviously that's not going to make much of a difference if the media doesn't--and quite a lot of media outlets seem to be refusing to just ignore him. RFK Jr also has quite an audience already and promotes extremely harmful viewpoints, so the extent to which ignoring him is useful is, i think, debatable on some grounds. it may or may not be a good idea to let him spout anti-vaccine rhetoric unchecked.

[–] CrimsonOnoscopy 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My concern is based on what happened with Trump. The more we debated him in 2016, and the more he was criticized in the media, the more his profile grew.

Of course the media won't do the sensible thing- Where's the profit incentive in that?

But perhaps by being indifferent instead of outraged, we'll not encourage them to write quite so much about him.

[–] tburkhol 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trump, and I think RFK jr, appeal to anti-establishment people. When the establishment media criticize them, it validates their anti-establishment credentials.

Media like them because they're controversial, and controversy drives engagement. I'm sure they see RFK jr as the 'left wing' Trump and great for the bottom line.

[–] CrimsonOnoscopy 2 points 1 year ago

The one thing we can do, maybe, is to not engage. Try not to think about him.

We should have tried that with Trump.