Booked, Briefly
Short story about being invited to appear on a show--and then uninvited
In February, a prominent host of a show in Great Britain invited me on, thanks to a connection made by a mutual third-party contact.
I said sure.
A few days later, I was told by the third party that the "legal" advisory of the network was concerned that OfCom (regulator) would be a problem.
So I was effectively disinvited, via the third party, and did not hear from the host again.
Other ‘dissident’ voices have been on the show over the past few years, including people I consider colleagues or allies in the fight against the lies told in and about the COVID-19 event.
What I find rather irritating is that the host of this show is a champion of "free speech" and has expressed a No Pandemic view. It’s like being invited to a lovely dinner party—because a friend encouraged the host to include you—only to be quickly uninvited because another guest felt uneasy about your presence. (In which case, you tell yourself it would’ve been an awful party anyway, and the host probably has terrible taste in food and wine or cooks filet mignon at the wrong temperature!) 😊
Reacting to my post about the situation on X,
said,But why should Ofcom have anything to do with it? AFAIK, the Online Safety Act, unlike the DSA, has no provisions related to "disinformation". Hence it does not extend to factual discourse. It's about "hate speech" and child safety. I don't see how you could be a "risk"...
This is not to say, of course, that the Online Safety Act won't have and is not having a chilling effect on free speech. It is, but for other reasons relating to liability. But, like I say, purely factual discourse, like yours, could not create any such liability.
…it does sound to me like whoever it was, was using Ofcom as an alibi...
I agree, and it’s more than possible that the OfCom excuse was contrived and there are other reasons I was deemed unsuitable.
Do I ‘need’ to be on that (or any) show? No.
However, it’s a bit disturbing that we are apparently still in an environment where people like me - with a pretty clear message that challenges the official narrative and permitted dissent - are considered a threat or ‘not fit for purpose’.
As Martin Neil quipped, riffing on Elon Musk’s November 2022 policy, “‘Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach’ applies universally now.”
That much is clear when even those who claim to champion contrarian voices acquiesce to silencing them.
On a brighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Dennison Joyce (WIOX Radio, Catskills, NY) and
(Harlem, NYC) about the New York City spring 2020 event and broader questions surrounding the so-called ‘pandemic’. I appreciated their respective styles.As a guest, these felt like real conversations—the kind you might have over dinner.
Correction made to emailed version that included two versions of the same section I couldn’t decide between and had left both in.
As a I am in England I would be interested in knowing which person/event/show were responsible for treating you this way. Are you at liberty to disclose?
Mebe they found out your code name is "Trotsky" :)