The RFK Jr. hearing is such a failure that both Fox News and Newsmax stopped showing it live.
Fox News and Newsmax both abandoned their live coverage:
Newsmax has also abandoned ship on the RFK Jr. hearing. pic.twitter.com/pLO3cit1gr
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 20, 2023
There are a couple of reasons why the conservative networks bailed on the hearing.
First, Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) demolished RFK Jr.:
Plaskett brutally lays out what Jordan is doing, “They want to force social media companies to promote conspiracy theories because they think that’s the only way their candidate can win the 2024 election. They want to bully experts into abandoning their work on disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/XjvrvfpYcW
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 20, 2023
The second reason is that the cable networks closely monitor their real-time viewership, and the decision to move on from the hearing suggests that viewers were tuning out and ratings were dropping for the live coverage.
Jim Jordan has managed to put on such a non-newsworthy hearing that even Fox News and Newsmax viewers were not buying it.
The one defining characteristic of all of Jim Jordan’s weaponization of government hearings has been their failure to generate any coverage outside of the conservative media bubble. The RFK Jr. hearing is so bad that it can’t hold the attention of conservatives.
It is not surprising that Jordan’s latest effort to help Trump has failed. Republicans should be alarmed because Jordan’s degree of failure is increasing, and he has gotten to the point where he can’t even keep the MAGAs around.
The RFJ Jr. hearing is Jim Jordan’s biggest failure yet in his bid to help Trump get back to the White House in 2024.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
