General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Did YOU hear RFK, Jr. mentioned in the Public Eye over the last 18 months? [View all]mathematic
(1,439 posts)1) To gauge people's awareness of media reports of RFK, Jr?
2) To gauge people's awareness of RFK, Jr's positions?
3) To gauge media representation of RFK, Jr?
4) To contrast media's representation of two of RFK, Jr's positions?
To start off, the national news media reported both of these things. People's awareness of that depends solely on how much they follow the national news media. Plenty of people get their news from a network of online kooks and then assume that there's no reportage in mainstream national news media.
Analyzing the frequency of reporting of RFK, Jr's positions is even more problematic. RFK, Jr's statement about JFK's assassination is something that came up once: during the 50th anniversary of a historical event last fall. The newsworthiness of his statement is somewhere in the neighborhood of "novelty" and "useless", since it was an unverifiable statement about somebody else's opinion from 45 years ago.
On the other hand, RFK, Jr's positions about vaccines deal with an ongoing issue. For the past decade he has actively and successfully worked to reduce public safety by undermining public trust in science and medicine. He has access to policy makers. He has access to opinion makers. As a result, his work is extremely newsworthy.