On Wednesday afternoon during Free Speech Week, Media Research Center President David Bozell joined The Scott Jennings Show to explain that the week is about identifying and honoring those who protect, defend, promote, and advance freedom of speech everywhere. This year, the MRC highlighted HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the individual who has done the most to defend free speech in America.
Bozell noted that RFK Jr. was one of the first targets identified by the Biden administration to be kicked off social media, landing at the top of their "Disinformation Dirty Dozen" list. His nonprofit was removed from Instagram, and during his presidential run, his campaign was banned from Facebook and Instagram until Meta eventually apologized and reinstated it.
MRC President @DavidBozell highlights why we chose to honor RFK Jr. with our 2026 Free Speech Award. "He inherited the biggest spoke of the Biden censorship apparatus with HHS... and dismantled it all in the swiftest fashion of all the cabinet secretaries." @JenningsShow https://t.co/ycBoNEXyo2
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) October 21, 2026
Bozell emphasized that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. inherited the largest spoke in the Biden administration's censorship apparatus: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its sub-agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, and the Office of the Surgeon General, which ran multi-million dollar grant programs aimed at censoring Americans online. Building on President Donald Trump’s Day One executive order, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. installed key leadership and guardrails across the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure future administrations cannot repeat these operations. For these efforts, Bozell affirmed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. truly earned the Media Research Center Free Speech Award.
Bozell also called out the left's ongoing attacks on free speech, referencing Kara Swisher’s comments on The Bulwark podcast claiming Elon Musk "knows what's coming for him." Bozell argued that in the eyes of the left, Musk's "fatal sin" was preserving X (formerly Twitter) as a digital town square, exposing how figures like Kara Swisher and Representative Elissa Slotkin ultimately seek to destroy the conservative ecosystem.
MRC's @DavidBozell on the @JenningsShow: The Left's end goal is destroying the entire conservative movement. People like Elisa Slotkin, Kara Swisher, and Jack Smith never thought Trump would win again, so getting him isn't enough. https://t.co/Jw7UvirdFD
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) October 21, 2026
This dynamic was further highlighted when Senator Chuck Grassley confronted Special Counsel Jack Smith during a Senate hearing. Smith expressed irritation with the Media Research Center, The Mark Levin Show, The Federalist, and other conservative outlets, banking on the assumption that Donald Trump would never win again so they could dismantle the conservative media space entirely.
Bozell concluded by pointing to Mark Zuckerberg, who created a platform that gave hundreds of millions of people a voice, yet was coerced by the Biden administration into censoring Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump, and other conservative voices.
Watch the full segment here:
