The New York Times, once the “newspaper of record” in the United States, achieved fish-wrapper status long ago. But, like most of the rest of the legacy media, they insist on daily proving that we should no longer take them seriously; the latest such effort involved a “fact check” (yes, the use of scare quotes is intentional) of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim about ingredients in Canadian vs. American Froot Loops.
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In an interview on MSNBC after Trump’s victory earlier this month, Kennedy suggested the second Trump administration could eliminate entire departments within the FDA: “In some categories, their entire departments, like the nutrition department in the FDA, they have to go. They’re not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada, and it’s got two or three?”
It’s an interesting point. While the missing piece of this puzzle, one has to admit, is an examination of the differences in food labeling laws between the United States and the Great White North, that wouldn’t affect the New York Times’ response, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, puzzling.
“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,” the Times’ report read. “But he was wrong. 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.”
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Wow. Just… wow. He was wrong? How was he wrong? Do these people even proofread their own work? Let’s parse that argument, shall we? RFK Jr. is wrong because, well, Canada’s Froot Loops have “natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots” while American Froot Loops contain “red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1, as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene?”
Here’s what BHT is. Just in case you were wondering.
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.
Yup. It’s a treatment for genital herpes. I swear, you can’t make this stuff up. Sorry, New York Times, but I’m going for the Canadian breakfast cereal.
The “fact check” made X explode.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have his work cut out for him at Health & Human Services, yes. But boy, howdy, if this is representative of the kind of media attention he can expect to receive, it’s going to be an insane few years ahead of us. But in the end, maybe, just maybe, American diets will improve – as will American health. You are what you eat, and too many American have, for quite a few years, been eating crap.
That, we can hope, will be changing now.
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Granted Canada doesn’t rely just on having superior Froot Loops. They also seem to have the monopoly on Lay’s All-Dressed Ruffles potato chips, inarguably the best potato chips in the world, and I think it’s manifestly unfair that our cousins to the north (or east, in my case) get these wondrous chips that are, for some insane reason, denied to us Americans. And no, I won’t read the ingredients list on these amazing snacks because, given the opportunity, I would eat them regardless.
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Let’s all remember, Mr. Kennedy will be starting a new job soon, so expect to see more of this kind of – ahem – “fact-checking.”
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Yeah, it’s going to be fun to watch.
This seems appropriate.