NYT dragged for hilariously botched 'fact check' of RFK Jr.'s war on artificial ingredients
Category: News & Politics
Via: the-chad • 3 days ago • 4 commentsBy: Chris Nesi Published (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Chris NesiPublished Nov. 17, 2024, 3:35 p.m. ET
This New York Times "gotcha" is about as sharp as a soggy bowl of breakfast cereal.
The Times was relentlessly mocked over the weekend for appearing to unintentionally make Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s case in a recent article that tried to poke holes in his anti-processed-food crusade.
Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has long pushed for purging artificial ingredients from the food supply, routinely calling such additives "poison."
3Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Times on Friday ran a story positing that the Kennedy scion's stance while potentially leading the agency could put him on a collision course with Big Food, which the outlet warned could jeopardize Republicans' longstanding friendly relationship with the multibillion-dollar industry.
"Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version," Gray Lady scribes wrote of the colorful Kellogg's cereal often criticized by RFK Jr.
"But he was wrong," the article continued authoritatively — before delivering what was meant to be the death blow certain to tear Kennedy's incorrect beliefs to smithereens.
"The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada's has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label," the report said.
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Ingredients such as artificial food dyes are among those RFK Jr. has frequently railed against, particularly in products marketed toward children.
The unfortunate juxtaposition of Canada's naturally derived ingredients with the US' roll call of artificial chemical dyes — complete with a difficult-to-pronounce, sciencey-sounding additive — was brutally derided in an X post by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk that was viewed more than half a million times.
3Guerin Charles/ABACA/Shutterstock
"Wait, so RFK Jr. was completely accurate, but they didn't like how he said it?" wrote an incredulous X user.
Another person quipped, "They are the same, only different, right? that is logical… Sure it is."
An X writer, referring to Trump's decisive election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, said, "This. This is exactly why they lost. Everything about this particular part of this specific article is why we won and they lost."
Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 1 are all on the chopping block in California, which has mandated that food manufacturers replace artificial ingredients with naturally derived alternatives by 2027 or face banishment from public school vending machines and school cafeterias statewide.
Backers of the ban say the dyes have been linked to developmental and behavior problems in kids.
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Butylated hydroxytoluene -BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) is a lab-made chemical that is added to foods as a preservative. People also use it as medicine. BHT is used to treat genital herpes and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some people apply BHT directly to the skin for cold sores.
What the hell happened to the New York Times?
Great example of how dishonest fact checkers can be
I have an app on my phone called the Yuka app, it's free on iTunes and the google store. We must be awful people because we do not buy products with hazardous additives.
For example Honey bunches of oats:
2 Hazardous additives
Carmel color consists of 4 types of Carmel with different health risk levels. North America regulations make no distinction between these classes and they're all displayed under the same name.
During the manufacturing process of Class III and IV, potentially carcinogenic or immunotoxin compounds (4-Mel and THI) are formed which can eventually be found in trace amounts in this color additive. According to the State of California environmental health hazard assessment. These chemicals are known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.
Butylhydroxytoluene is an antioxidant that has been shown by many studies to be an endocrine disruptor. In particular it is believed to affect the thyroid and sex hormones.
The app will also tell you in which countries it is banned from food and gives the scientific studies.
I use it on every product and it's an eye opener, we are clearly consuming poisons and our Government until now has not and does not care.
California for RFK, Jr! At least on this issue, I’m with him. Get this crap out of the food.