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Archae

(46,335 posts)
Fri Aug 28, 2015, 09:45 AM Aug 2015

Latest hack writer at WND, birther and far-right conspiracy theory web site (RFK Jr)

Last edited Fri Aug 28, 2015, 01:48 PM - Edit history (1)

He joins such "luminaries" as Jack Cashill and Jerome Corsi.

WND Brings RFK Jr. Aboard As Anti-Vaxxer Columnist
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may not share the same political views, but they share common cause in promoting discredited anti-vaxxer rhetoric. So WND has rather belatedly welcomed Kennedy to its extremist fold, giving him the full columnist-with-bio treatment for his writings, as shown above. (That bio is so outdated, it refers to his radio show as airing on Air America Radio, which shut down five years ago.)
RFK Jr.'s Aug. 24 WND column is a screed against Forbes magazine for putting a dent in his conspiracy theory that Poul Thorsen, a Danish scientist accused of stealing $1 million in federal grant money for his own use, is some sort of mastermind in the government/vaccine industry scheme to suppress evidence that vaccines don't cause autism. Here's a snippet showing the general tone of Kennedy's piece:

Dr. Thorsen is one of the co-authors and data manager for two leading foreign studies offered by CDC as the foundation of its claims that vaccines do not cause autism. Only purposeful misstatement or journalistic sloth can account for Willingham’s declaration that Thorsen’s conclusions “have not been called into question.” For over a decade, myriad critics have exposed those studies as brazen fraud.

Among those RFK Jr. as questioning those studies is the Journal for the American Physicians and Surgeons, the publication of the anti-vaxxer-friendly and far-right-fringe Academy of American Physicians and Surgeons -- hardly credible evidence. But as the Forbes article pointed out, Thorsen was not first author or senior author on those studies, which suggests that his contribution to them is not as significant as people like Kennedy claim. Further despite Kennedy's ranting that the Thorsen-linked studies are a "brazen fraud," Forbes points out that the studies and data "have not been called into question (through formal channels) or retracted."

Kennedy takes a cue from his new friends at WND and carefully crafts his outrage to avoid issues actually discussed in the Forbes article, like pointing out how Kennedy has asserted that Thorsen is "on the run from Interpol" despite living and working openly in Denmark (or, apparently, not actually being sought by Interpol), as well as the fact that Thorsen contributed to a paper recently published by an institute named for Kennedy's aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Forbes also notes that Kennedy and other anti-vaxxers aren't attacking Thorsen's research into things not related to vaccines and autism.

Kennedy also ignores Forbes' key argument: "If the charges are true, Thorsen bilked the US government, specifically the CDC, out of millions and used it to buy himself things. How that translates into a willingness to engage in a conspiracy with the CDC remains elusive."

http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/blog/index.blog?entry_id=2355952

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Latest hack writer at WND, birther and far-right conspiracy theory web site (RFK Jr) (Original Post) Archae Aug 2015 OP
He's off his rocker sharp_stick Aug 2015 #1
Oh dear. NuclearDem Aug 2015 #2
Sad. RFK, Jr. was a strong voice DirkGently Aug 2015 #3
What a fucking asshat. Dr Hobbitstein Aug 2015 #4
Wow. zappaman Aug 2015 #5
Oh, I am. Archae Aug 2015 #6
This would get more looks if you put his name in the title. zappaman Aug 2015 #8
DU rec... SidDithers Aug 2015 #7
RFK Jr. is why I gave up on anybody connected to Ring of Fire. MohRokTah Aug 2015 #9
 

Dr Hobbitstein

(6,568 posts)
4. What a fucking asshat.
Fri Aug 28, 2015, 11:34 AM
Aug 2015

At least he's out of the mainstream media now, and writing with the crazy CT's on WND now.

Archae

(46,335 posts)
6. Oh, I am.
Fri Aug 28, 2015, 11:56 AM
Aug 2015

The fact that Kennedy had to go to WND, of all places, shows just how badly discredited he's become.

Sometimes people we can admire in the past, can become total idiots. Or worse.

Henry Ford put the country and the world on wheels, but was a vicious anti-Semite, stubborn to the point of stupidity, and hated unions horribly, hiring gangsters to "take them out."

Linus Pauling was one of the best nuclear physicists we had in this country, but he became convinced he could cure cancer and many other diseases with his crackpot ideas about vitamins.

Jane Goodall did incredible reports, films, articles and books about chimpanzees in the wild, but now she's given a hack who only has a business degree from the nutso Maharishi "university" a glowing review and more for his bullshit about GMO's.

 

MohRokTah

(15,429 posts)
9. RFK Jr. is why I gave up on anybody connected to Ring of Fire.
Fri Aug 28, 2015, 01:35 PM
Aug 2015

CT shit needs to be repudiated hard.

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