From babble to reason: The problem of media sanewashing of Trump

A few days earlier, Trump had announced his support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who has long promoted the baseless claim that vaccines cause autism. He had stated that “a panel of leading experts, led by Bobby,” would “investigate the causes of the decades-long rise in chronic health problems and childhood diseases, including autoimmune diseases, autism, obesity, infertility and more.”

The transcript of this part of Trump’s speech states: The New York Times Trump’s mention of autism was omitted, simply writing that “Mr. Trump said that if elected to a second term, a panel of experts “working with Bobby” would study obesity rates and other chronic health problems in the United States.” By omitting the mention of autism, which should always be a red flag when it accompanies a mention of Kennedy, Just took an obvious conspiracy theory reference and turned it into a normal-sounding political proposal.

During a speech at an event hosted by the extremist group Moms for Liberty, Trump promoted a baseless conspiracy theory that “your child goes to school and a few days later comes home with surgery,” referring to gender-reassignment surgeries for transgender people. In their report on the event, a blistering article about how Trump “charmed” this group of “conservative mothers,” the Just He didn’t even mention the moment when he ranted endlessly about a crazy conspiracy that never happened and never will happen.