ABC Censors Presidential Dem Candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.

In a wonderfully written piece by Johnathan Turley, we get the news that the media will have no qualms in censoring a Presidential candidate. A precedent is being set and it would be wise for us to pay attention. As of now the Kennedy challenge to Biden is a sleeper of a story. But behind the wall, the cabal of government and media collusion,  censoring a candidate….a new step in the gaslighting of America.

Johnathan Turley:

Before he was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy declared that “hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard.” That does not appear to be the view of ABC News, which censored his son who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination. ABC objected to Kennedy’s views on COVID-19 vaccines, so it simply announced that it was preventing viewers from hearing those views to protect them from dangerous ideas.

Legal analyst Jonathan Turley assailed ABC News for “actively seeking to prevent voters from hearing a presidential candidate on an issue of great public interest and debate.”

As described Monday in his column, the George Washington University law professor and frequent Fox News contributor said, “ABC is now claiming the right to censor presidential candidates to protect the public from harmful thoughts or disinformation, including major issues behind a campaign. It is wrong for both the country and for journalism.”

“We do not have to be protected from dangerous thoughts by the media,” Turley wrote. “A far greater danger lurks in the indoctrination and orthodoxy that comes from censorship.”

ABC’s Linsey Davis began the interview by introducing Kennedy as “one of the biggest voices pushing anti-vaccine rhetoric, regularly distributing misinformation and disinformation about vaccines, which scientific and medical experts overwhelmingly say are safe and effective based on rigorous scientific studies.”

That apparently was not enough. After telling viewers that this is one of his most famous stances (and its own disagreement), it then censored those views.

After airing the interview, Davis announced “[w]e should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines. We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview.”

Kennedy tweeted that “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.”

The provision is designed to guarantee equal time for presidential candidates and does add “such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast.” However, that does not mean that a candidate is given carte blanche and cannot be edited. In this case, however, ABC is affirmatively stating that it censored his remarks because it disagreed with them.

Putting aside the federal law, this is wrong. ABC can challenge such views, but it is actively seeking to prevent voters from hearing a presidential candidate on an issue of great public interest and debate.

…..It is not clear where ABC draws the line. Joe Biden has made so many false statements that the Washington Post gave him a “bottomless Pinocchio.” Likewise, many view contested claims over climate change and transgender issues to be dangerous. Will ABC now be censoring these other candidates or positions? https://jonathanturley.org/2022/11/07/bidens-bottomless-pinocchio-washington-post-hits-the-president-with-rare-rebuke-for-repeated-false-claims/

Read the full Turley post  here 

Here is what YouTube offers in the ABC interview

RFK Jr. on presidential run: ‘I feel like my country was being taken away from me’

Around 9:45 the interview brushes with the vaccine issue

The best of the swamp.