U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday of journalistic malpractice during the Covid period, saying that she failed to ask critical questions of public health authorities and helped marginalise dissenters. This is reported by Fox News.
“You were part of the problem. It was absolute journalistic malpractice. Your job – your job – is to be deeply sceptical of authorities, and you were not,” Kennedy said on the programme State of the Union.
“You went after people who held dissenting views,” the Secretary added.
Kennedy launched the attack after Bash asked how the authorities would prepare for a new pandemic and attempted to get him to stop revisiting the federal government’s previous handling of the matter.
Bash responded that she was trying to ask how Kennedy would prevent a new public health crisis.
“I also don’t want to use this interview to allow you to say things that aren’t entirely true,” Bash said. “You’re talking about treatments. Fine. It is also a fact that the Covid vaccine worked. The Covid vaccine prevented deaths. There is data upon data upon data.”
After Bash acknowledged how frightening the pandemic had been and said that the authorities had made mistakes, Kennedy accused CNN of helping to spread fear among the public.
“You frightened people,” Kennedy said.
Bash asked why he believed CNN had frightened viewers, prompting Kennedy to point to the network’s on-screen Covid banners. “Because that was CNN’s job,” Kennedy said.
Bash said that the network had covered government officials, including President Donald Trump’s daily White House press briefings.
“We listened to the leaders of this country, including the president, who held a daily press conference to explain what was happening,” Bash said.
CNN defended Bash’s questioning and the network’s pandemic coverage in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“Dana Bash is a seasoned journalist who conducted a newsmaking interview with Secretary Kennedy, during which he stated that he supports parents having their children vaccinated against measles and addressed President Trump’s call for further research into autism and vaccines,” a CNN spokesperson said.
“Asking tough, substantive questions of those in power is every journalist’s job, and Dana did hers exceptionally well today. We stand behind Dana, her reporting, and CNN’s overall coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the spokesperson added.
Kennedy later accused Bash of punishing people who distrusted Fauci, claiming that he lied about masks, social distancing, natural immunity, vaccine transmission, and the origins of Covid-19.
“We know that Anthony Fauci, who was the expert, lied about everything,” Kennedy said. “He lied. And you punished people for not trusting the experts.”
The interview was broadcast four days after Fauci, on the advice of his lawyer, invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times during a Senate hearing on the handling of the pandemic and the origins of Covid-19. Fauci literally did not answer a single question, not even when asked what colour his tie was.
Senator Rand Paul (R) has said that his committee will vote on a resolution to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress.
Bash’s questions also came as the United States recorded its highest number of measles cases in 35 years.
When Bash asked Kennedy to urge parents directly to have their children vaccinated, he endorsed the MMR vaccine.
“Parents should have their children vaccinated against measles,” Kennedy said. “The measles vaccine is effective. It prevents measles in approximately 97% of cases. People should get vaccinated.”
When the popular podcaster Joe Rogan announced in 2021 that he was taking ivermectin for Covid-19, he was attacked by media outlets such as CNN. To quote CNN anchor Brian Stelter: “He’s getting people to want to try horse dewormer.”
Dr Leana Wen remarked on the programme: “People want to believe that there’s a magic pill for Covid… But when it comes to ivermectin, not only is there no evidence that it works, there is also evidence that it doesn’t work.”
This is simply not true. There is abundant evidence that ivermectin is effective against Covid-19 in the overwhelming majority of cases.
The Chinese-born American physician Leana Wen frequently appeared on CNN as a medical analyst on matters relating to Covid-19 and vaccines. “We need to start looking at the choice not to get vaccinated in the same way that we look at drunk driving,” she told CNN journalist Chris Cuomo in 2021. “You have the choice not to get vaccinated if you want, but then you can’t go out in public.” Wen elaborated that society has an “obligation to prevent” the unvaccinated from leaving their homes and infecting others, just as society has an obligation to deter drunk drivers. “The vaccinated should no longer have to pay the price for the so-called choices of the unvaccinated,” she continued.
Television presenter Chris Cuomo admitted in 2024 that he now regularly takes the drug ivermectin himself to combat health problems, despite ridiculing the medication in 2021. “Ivermectin was a bogeyman early on during Covid. That was wrong; we got bad information about ivermectin. The real question is why?” “Everyone is going to say, ‘Joe Rogan was right.’ No, that’s not what matters. Yes, he was right, but what matters is that the entire clinical community knew ivermectin couldn’t hurt you,” Cuomo added. “I know they knew it. How do I know it? Because now all I do is talk to these clinicians, who at the time were overwhelmed by Covid, and they said nothing.”
Although Kennedy’s criticism of CNN is justified, it should be noted that Fox News itself introduced mandatory Covid vaccination for its employees.