Oh God: RFK Jr. Unveils Plan To Be First Sitting Cabinet Secretary To Host A Podcast

from the oh-no dept

With all that RFK Jr. has done, and failed to do, as the Secretary of HHS, he should be terribly busy cleaning up mess after mess. The measles outbreak that is going to cause America to lose its elimination status is still ongoing and on pace to quadruple last year’s case total, so he could work on that. He could be busy finding a CDC Director, a position left vacant well beyond the federally mandated limit of 210 days. Or a Surgeon General. Or he could be working to undo the harms and effects of the misinformation that he and Trump have been pumping into the media ecosystem.

But it seems that, despite reporting that the White House wants to rein him in so he doesn’t get the GOP murdered in the midterms, Kennedy has instead decided its time to make history as the first sitting cabinet secretary to host his very own podcast.

The show, titled “The Secretary Kennedy Podcast,” will launch next week and feature Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine crusader who has reshaped the country’s health policy, in conversation with doctors, scientists and agency staff, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials told the AP ahead of the launch. In the teaser video, in a slick HHS-branded studio with ominous music playing in the background, Kennedy bills it as a new way to expose corruption and lies that have made Americans sick.

“We’re going to name the names of the forces that obstruct the paths to public health,” Kennedy says in the nearly 90-second clip.

We all know where this is going. Before entering into government, Kennedy hosted his own podcast previously. It covered such sane topics as:

1. Google and Mind Control
2. Vaccines During Pregnancy (featuring anti-vaxxer Lyn Redwood)
3. EMR, Cell Phones, & Cancer
4. IRS: Pro-Pharma Anti-Health
5. Censorship & Twitter Files with Matt Taibbi

So, you know, a conspiracy theory podcast, featuring all of Kennedy’s favorite topics. Anyone looking at this podcast as a source of information is clinically insane. This is just another megaphone through which to growl his anti-science, anti-medicine conspiratorial views. That he is making history in doing so when he has far better things he could be doing is simply the rotten cherry on top of this shit sundae.

Tyler Burger, HHS digital communications manager and the producer of the new podcast, said while Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary has a podcast, officials believe Kennedy’s will be the first to be hosted by a sitting cabinet secretary.

“We’re kind of bringing podcasting into the government as an official form and arm of our messaging,” Burger said. He said the set for the show was pieced together largely with items the agency already had, and has the capacity for a total of four people to sit in conversation together.

While I appreciate Kennedy for giving me what will surely be much, much more about which to write, there is danger in this. You can be sure that Kennedy will not be inviting dissenting viewpoints onto his show. Anyone coming across it, with the imprimatur of a sitting Secretary as its host, may fall victim to thinking that what is being presented is official federal policy, the viewpoints of real doctors and scientists, or… you know… sane.

It won’t be any of that. I sincerely hope someone in the White House catches wind of this and puts a stop to it. Sadly, I doubt that is forthcoming.

Filed Under: donald trump, podcast, rfk jr.