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.”
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.
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, science-y 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.
“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 food manufacturers replace artificial ingredients with naturally derived alternatives by 2027 or face banishment from public-school vending machines and cafeterias in schools statewide.
Backers of the ban say the dyes have been linked to developmental and behavior problems in kids.