Political Wire

  • Front Page
  • Trending
  • Reader Wire
  • Members
    • Subscribe
    • Sign In
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Media Buzz / From the Fringe to Fox

From the Fringe to Fox

September 6, 2025 at 3:36 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Joe Passantino: “On Capitol Hill this week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. found himself under fire. The notorious anti-vaccine activist turned Health and Human Services secretary was grilled in a tense Senate Finance Committee hearing, where lawmakers from both parties accused him of peddling falsehoods about vaccines and undermining public health. At one point he exaggerated the number of childhood immunizations, downplayed Covid’s death toll, and suggested health officials were deliberately misleading the public.”

“That spectacle offered a snapshot of how far once-fringe claims have traveled. For years, Kennedy was considered a crank on the margins, hawking anti-vaccine conspiracy theories in wellness circles and on the talk-radio fringe. Now he is running the country’s health department. His views aren’t just tolerated, they are being injected directly into the bloodstream of government policy. And it didn’t get there by accident. Right-wing media has been the vehicle.”

FavoriteLoadingSave to Favorites
  • Bluesky
  • X
  • Threads
  • Facebook
  • Email

Filed Under: Media Buzz

« Settlement Talks Stall Between Harvard and Trump
Pentagon Prioritizes Homeland Over China Threat »

Your Account

Sign in

Members Only

  • Weekly News Quiz
  • Never Waste a Good Crisis
  • A Warning Shot for the Democratic Establishment
  • Reevaluating the Redistricting Wars
  • What the Supreme Court Decision Means for the Midterms

Trial Balloon

Add Trial Balloon to your podcast player to get new episodes each week.


About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

Praise for Political Wire

“There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them.”

— Chuck Todd, host of “Meet the Press”

“Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all.”

— Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

“Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

— Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

“The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom — nicely packaged, constantly updated… What political junkie could ask for more?”

— Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”

— Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

Copyright © 2026 · Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy | Corrections Policy

Political Wire ® is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC