RFK Jr.'s face next to the Fox News logo and a vaccine needle
Molly Butler / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News has embraced Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump while ignoring his dangerous views on vaccines

The network spent just 3 minutes on RFK Jr.’s signature vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation amid a week of praise for Kennedy’s health positions

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Research contributions from Rob Savillo & Harrison Ray

Published

Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent campaign for president and endorsed the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. Kennedy’s campaign — and arguably his political career — was founded on anti-vaccine beliefs. However, Fox News’ coverage of Kennedy’s endorsement has barely mentioned the former candidate’s record of spreading dangerous vaccine misinformation. Fox personalities have been quick to whitewash Kennedy’s beliefs by calling him a public health advocate, citing his views on food and chronic illness. While Fox has discussed Kennedy a significant amount, the network spent only 3 minutes talking about his unfounded anti-vaccine and COVID-19 beliefs. 

  • RFK Jr. has taken his dangerous conspiracy theories on vaccines to the Trump campaign

    • Long before COVID-19, Kennedy made a career out of pushing a litany of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and spread the debunked claim that vaccines are linked with autism. He became an anti-vaccine activist with the Children’s Health Defense, where he spread unfounded claims about so-called vaccine injury, global surveillance through microchips, and censorship of vaccine misinformation. [Media Matters, 4/7/23]
    • Kennedy later was a vector of misinformation during the pandemic, even dubbing the COVID-19 vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” Kennedy attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci in his book “The Real Anthony Fauci,” which is dedicated to numerous anti-vaccine figures. [FactCheck.org, 8/11/23]
    • Kennedy has since announced he will be working with Donald Trump should Trump win the election. The former presidential candidate was also linked to “health-focused summits” with TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. [The New Republic, 8/27/24; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/26/24]

  • Fox News has largely ignored RFK Jr.’s fringe beliefs on vaccines since his endorsement of Donald Trump

    • According to a Media Matters review, Fox News spent just 3 minutes discussing Kennedy’s COVID-19 and vaccine stances since his endorsement of Trump. 
    • Instead, since Kennedy dropped out of the presidential election and endorsed Trump, Fox News has praised him and his public health positions. One Fox News host, Ainsley Earhardt, even said Kennedy’s condemnation of “corruption in health care” is “music to every mom’s ears" without expanding on Kennedy’s vaccine positions. [Media Matters, 8/27/24]
    • Previously, as Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote, Fox “conducted a yearslong campaign to undermine the vaccines” for COVID-19 that was not without consequence. “The right-wing assault on the COVID-19 vaccines led to lower rates of vaccinations among Republicans — and consequently higher death rates. But the anti-vaccine sentiment unleashed by the likes of Fox and Kennedy was not limited to COVID-19: There have been broader impacts on GOP support for the full range of childhood vaccinations.” [Media Matters, 8/27/24]
    • While one host did acknowledge that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stances were “colorful,” much of the coverage of RFK’s policy revolved around his political viability, rather than the content of his policy. In one clip Fox News’ Howard Kurtz equated Kennedy’s harmful views on vaccines and COVID-19 to campaign gaffes. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 8/23/24; Fox News, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, 8/24/24]

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “RFK,” “Kennedy,” “Robert,” “Bobby,” or “R.F.K.” within close proximity of any of the terms “coronavirus,” “virus,” “pandemic,” “outbreak,” “corona,” “COVID-19,” “COVID 19,” “COVID,” “vaxx,” or “vax” or any variation of either of the terms “vaccine” or “immunize” from August 23, 2024, when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, through August 28, 2024.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Kennedy’s views on vaccines or COVID-19 was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of Kennedy's views. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed Kennedy's stance on vaccines or COVID-19 with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment about another topic mentioned Kennedy's views on vaccines or COVID-19 without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Kennedy's views scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

    We rounded all times to the nearest minute.

    Media Matters searched transcripts in the Kinetiq video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “RFK,” “R.F.K,” or “Kennedy” from August 23, when presidential candidate Kennedy announced the suspension of his presidential campaign and endorsed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, through August 28, 2024. We considered each instance when any speaker referred to Kennedy by name as a single mention.