Editor’s Note: On May 7, the City Club of Cleveland hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for a moderated forum. The moderator was Brad Wenstrup, executive director of Americans for Health Excellence and a former Republican Ohio congressman. During the forum, Secretary Kennedy described Hepatitis B as primarily affecting “high-risk groups like drug addicts, prostitutes, or promiscuous homosexuals.” The following letter is in response to that forum and is addressed to Dan Moulthop, CEO of City Club.
By Alfred Cowger
Dan:
Yesterday’s forum was a disaster, and the City Club clearly participated in making this a shipwreck.
Once again, the City Club invited a speaker who clearly would be controversial because he had been criticized repeatedly for bending the truth and ignoring basic scientific method in order to advance his program follies. There is nothing wrong with that decision to invite him, especially since this speaker is the Secretary of HHS, whose decisions are affecting the health and lives of millions of Americans.
The City Club completely failed in its job to promote “the marketplace of ideas” by making sure Kennedy’s statements and claims would not be challenged. Instead, the forum “moderator” was just a former GOP Congressman who is now the executive director of a lobbying group promoting Trump’s philosophical folly of a nationwide health program. Clearly, this moderator was not going to moderate anything, let alone pointedly correct any of Kennedy’s factual misstatements not bluntly clannege Kennedy’s misguided policies as being without scientific or health merit. As a result, the City Club failed in its mission from the moment it agreed to this forum structure.
The City Club should have learned from its mistakes with the Center for Christian Virtue forum. The City Club should have upheld its promise to those organizations who protested the CCV forum “moderation” that it would do better the next time. Kennedy’s speech was literally the next time, but the City Club chose to disregard the lessons of the CCV forum and to renege on its promises to its members and community organizations that it would do better in the future. As a result, the City Club was not just a chump being exploited by Kennedy, it became a willing participant in promotion of yet another dangerous and defamatory right-wing propaganda fest.
In fact, the City Club reiterated its willingness to participate in this sham by allowing its rules of audience participation and conduct to be violated not once, but twice. The moderator allowed Kennedy to ramble on until one-half of the designated Q&A time was lost, thereby ensuring Kennedy would not face many hard questions from an audience full of angry expert health experts and policy professionals.
Then, at the end of the Q&A session, a Kennedy sycophant was allowed to proclaim an extended adoration of Kennedy which was clearly not a question. Even worse, though her mic was turned off because time had expired, you actually allowed the mic to be turned back on. So, not only did you allow her to violate the procedures of decorum so clearly announced before the forum, but you helped in this violation by turning the mic back on so she could violate the rules with amplification. If the questioner would have looked like a young protester in a disparaging t-shirt and dreadlocks, would you have been so obsequious by turning the mic back on?
In the future, the City Club needs to look up the definition of “moderator” and then look up the definition of “cheerleader.” If you truly want the former, then don’t select the latter when organizing forums. In fact, don’t advertise the forum as a “moderated” one.
Instead, concede that the City Club is turning over its stage and its Q&A mics, and thus its reputation, for an hour of uncritiqued propagandizing. That will at least allow attendees like myself from wasting time to come downtown, and paying to park and attend this propaganda fest that I would otherwise have skipped.
The City Club is committing false advertising by claiming that a “moderator” will be participating. It should consider refunding the admission fees paid by those, like me, who thought this was going to be a moderated event. Worse, the City Club is risking its reputation and mission to be a bastion and defender of Free Speech if the City Club forums continue to be twisted into events that are nothing more than pandering to right-wing propaganda performances.
Finally, as a member and supporter of the City Club, I am owed an apology for Kennedy being allowed to claim that Hepatitis B is the result of “homosexual promiscuity.” That statement not only reiterates a stereotype of gay men being nothing more than sex whores, but it allows homophobes like Kennedy to blame the victims rather than adopting proven remedies, i.e. infant vaccinations, to this health crisis.
I lived through the early years of the AIDS epidemic when the Reagan administration chose to blame my friends, neighbors, and clients who were dying from AIDS for their horrific demise rather than actually doing anything to meaningfully respond to this health crisis. This was a dark and painful time for the LGBTQ+ community in Cleveland.
The City Club owes the LGBTQ+ community of Cleveland, including me, an apology for being forced to endure this insulting and hateful rhetoric again. 🔥
Alfred Cowger is an attorney, lecturer and advisor on civil rights issues, the history and interpretation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the impact of artificial intelligence on American jurisprudence.
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