Eamonn Holmes got himself into a bit of bother the other day. There’d been a phone-in on TV, I believe, where various theories were put forward explaining where the coronavirus began, particularly linking it to the 5G network, which a number of Chinese cities were developing at the time of the outbreak. Holmes didn’t say he subscribed to the theory. What he said was” [What] I don’t accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true when they don’t know it’s not true.”
Ouuuuuch. Hundreds of phone-calls to the show complaining: one accused Holmes of “talking crap”. Another said
“You don’t assume something is true until disproven, you don’t spread pure opinion, you go out and look for evidence it is true or false – practically the definition of journalism. Absolutely irresponsible.”
Within twenty-four hours, the bould Eamonn was backing off: “ There is no connection between the present national health emergency and 5G – and to suggest otherwise would be wrong and indeed, could be possibly dangerous.”
If you listened to or read what Holmes originally said, he wasn’t supporting the 5G-coronavirus theory, he was criticizing the mainstream media for “slapping it down” when they didn’t know. But it was obvious that the complainants weren’t going to accept that. Eamonn Holmes, they decided, had said he believed 5G was the source of the coronavirus, and he was talking crap.
So is there any link between 5G and the coronavirus? According to Public Health England, “It is possible that there may be a small increase in overall exposure to radio waves when 5G is added to an existing network or in a new area. However, the overall exposure is expected to remain low relative to guidelines and, as such, there should be no consequences for public health.”
Well now. So 5G does expose people to “a small increase in radio waves.” And there “should be no consequences for public health.”
Holmes was right in one thing: the mainstream media were dismissing the theory on the basis of nothing. But then they do that all the time. When I was considered sufficiently sin-free to be allowed to do freelance work in the BBC, I was often struck by how confident and informed presenters sounded, regardless of the subject (think Stephen Nolan, think William Crawley). In fact, the BBC people were often as ignorant on the subject as most others, but the bit they’d gleaned about the subject was enough to keep their heads above water for the half-hour of the programme, so they got away with sounding as if they really knew what they were talking about.
I haven’t a clue if there’s a 5G link with the coronavirus – in fact I’m not that clear on what 5G is. But I do remember the time when a lot of people believed that using a mobile phone could lead to cancer. We’ve stopped hearing about that since mobile phones are everywhere and the cancer rate doesn’t seem to have gone up. But the point is, there might have been a link. Most people simply didn’t know.
Our experience in this twisted little NE corner of Ireland has taught us to be wary of authoritative statements coming through the mainstream media. For years – decades, even – everything that the British army and the RUC claimed was accepted as by definition true. Years later, we’re still discovering how naïve that was.
I’m not a scientist –I failed the subject regularly when at school. Like you probably, I rely on the veracity of those who tells us things via the mainstream media, and a considerable number of us now know – too late – that on more than one occasion we were fed a barrowload of lies.
Linking the coronavirus to 5G is probably rubbish. But Holmes wasn’t talking rubbish when he said the mainstream media swat away anything that doesn’t fit the authorities’ accepted version of events. Or any political party.
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