Americans watching daytime television got a glimpse this week of the double standard in our cultural institutions when Cheryl Hines sat down with The View to promote her memoir and ended up defending her husband’s record under a barrage of partisan questioning. Hines made clear she came to talk about her life and book but was repeatedly dragged into a political grilling about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s role as Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Tuesday broadcast on October 14, 2025.
Sunny Hostin’s on-air pronouncement that RFK Jr. is “the least qualified Department of Health and Human Services head that we’ve had in history” was dripping with the kind of sanctimonious certainty the left uses to shut down debate rather than engage it. Hostin warned the audience that Kennedy’s views are “very dangerous,” a familiar dodge when the argument is losing on its merits and the only tool left is alarmism.
Hines didn’t fold under that pressure; she pushed back by pointing out her husband’s long legal career fighting corporate toxins and asking why non-medical backgrounds should automatically disqualify someone from public service. She reminded the panel that many recent HHS leaders came from non-medical fields and noted that experience in public health law and environmental litigation can be relevant to protecting Americans’ health.
The segment turned predictably tense when Hostin brought up RFK Jr.’s controversial past comments, even interrupting Hines to accuse Kennedy of connecting circumcision to autism — a claim that has been widely debated and weaponized by media critics. Hines’s curt “May I finish?” cut through the condescension and exposed how hostile these interviews can become when the producers want a headline rather than a fair exchange.
Meanwhile conservative commentators were rightly outraged at The View’s treatment of a guest who was simply defending her husband and their family. BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales ripped into the co-hosts for their smug posture and reminded viewers that Democrat appointees, like Xavier Becerra, also lacked medical degrees yet drew no similar scorn from the network elites. That selective moralizing tells you everything you need to know about which voices are allowed dignity in the mainstream media and which are not.
Let’s be blunt: the left’s reflexive appeal to “expertise” is often a cover for gatekeeping. Plenty of HHS secretaries in recent history were lawyers, managers, or policy wonks rather than physicians — Xavier Becerra, for example, came to the role after decades in law and politics, not as a medical doctor. Conservatives who believe in honest debate should demand the same standards for media fairness that we demand for qualifications: reasoned questions, not gotcha moments.
Hardworking Americans deserve media that respects them and public conversations that aren’t staged for spectacle. Cheryl Hines showed courage by refusing to be shamed into silence, and patriots should stand with anyone bullied by the broadcast press for defending their family or their principles. If the elites want to lecture the country on “dangerous” views, then fine — but they should expect pushback from Americans who value free speech, fair play, and leaders who will put the nation’s interests first.
