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CNN anchor Jake Tapper published a first-person column Thursday in which he tore up a “wild and false story” that Democratic presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told about the journalist on a podcast earlier this month.
Tapper called out the nominee and famed vaccine skeptic for claiming he had teamed up with Tapper in 2005 to promote his article about links between vaccines and autism in a TV spot at the time.
Tapper claimed that during the recent podcast, Kennedy exaggerated how profound and important his interview with Tapper – then a reporter at ABC News – was. He accused the Democrat of failing to mention that both Salon and Rolling Stone retracted his article the reporter interviewed him for because of inaccuracies, and that the nominee falsely claimed that Tapper called him and told him that ABC “corporate” killed his story before it was broadcast. .
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. READINGS SOCIAL MEDIA SITES ON FIRST AMENDMENT
CNN correspondent Jake Tapper has nominated 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (a) Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images b) Screenshot/Hannity )
Tapper’s column claimed this was untrue, and that the ABC piece on Kennedy’s article aired on the broadcast network on June 22, 2005, with added context from doctors claiming that “the vast majority of scientific data” does not support his claims supported.
“He told the story as ‘evidence’ of TV news networks trying to censor the truth when it came to vaccines. In it he distorts the facts and wildly misrepresents what really happened. The truth about it is instructive because of how unattached it is. to facts,” Tapper wrote.
The CNN anchor went on to describe the various mistakes he said belonged to the candidate’s retelling. He first noted that the first article Kennedy wanted to promote at the time was factually incorrect.
Tapper stated, “Flash back to 2005. Kennedy co-published a piece on Salon.com and Rolling Stone with his false, since-disproved claims about autism and vaccines. (After editing the story with five major corrections, Salon.com eventually took it down. Rolling Stone also removed the piece, but with less transparency.)”
At the time, Tapper contacted Kennedy “to see if we would be interested in a TV spot related to the publication of the Kennedy Jr. piece.” He added, “I interviewed him over the phone, with a TV crew in his office, and prepared a spot for ‘World News Tonight with Peter Jennings’.”
WHAT ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. TOLD FOX NEWS ABOUT HIS POLL POSITION
Robert Kennedy Jr. makes a longshot bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
He then went on to explain how the candidate’s retelling differed greatly from Tapper’s assessment of what happened.
“In Kennedy’s bizarre retelling a few days ago… I worked with him ‘for three weeks on this incredible documentary’ (no and no) about his Rolling Stone story – please note he makes no mention of the article that has since been withdrawn and disappeared,” Tapper wrote.
Tapper also called the candidate claiming that Tapper told him on the phone, “In my whole career I’ve never had a piece killed by a company and I’m so angry.” Tapper wrote, “I hadn’t. I had been with ABC News for two years. I’d had enough pieces killed. Not once did ‘corporate’ play a part in killing any of them.”
Tapper then stated, “RFK Jr. misrepresented the content of this call for years. (I told him we held the story for a day.) In his retelling, a two-minute piece was an ‘incredible documentary.’ was three weeks, a remote interview was me working extensively with him, and a piece that was delayed one day so we could interview some real experts is a piece that was killed.
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He also noted that the TV report that came out nearly 20 years ago featured experts debunking allegations in Kennedy’s article. Kennedy has long linked vaccinations to childhood autism, but the vast majority of medical experts dismiss his claims as unfounded.
“He remains someone you can’t rely on for facts, truth or accuracy,” Tapper concluded.
Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
