UK MEDIA REGULATOR OFCOM GOES AFTER ME, MARK STEYN, FOR TELLING THE TRUTH
Wed 9:26 am +00:00, 10 May 2023After a 7 Month Investigation into GBNews, OfCom Censures Mark Steyn, me, for accurate info from Pfizer Documents, via 3500 Medical and Scientific Experts, showing Harm to Women and Babies.
Here is UK Media regulator Ofcom’s Orwellian announcement today, censuring Mark Steyn, GBNews and me, after its seven months’ long investigation into my comments on Mark Steyn’s show, in which I correctly presented harms to women and babies that are tabulated in Pfizer’s own internal documents. Ofcom’s conclusion is not that I was wrong — I was right — in warning women, via primary source evidence in Pfizer’s own documents, about damage to their babies, placentas and breast milk, but rather, Ofcom claims that my comments were “harmful” — even though I was telling the truth:
“OFCOM FINDS GB NEWS IN BREACH OF BROADCASTING RULES FOR A SECOND TIME” is the regulator’s headline.
“An Ofcom investigation has today found the Mark Steyn programme, which first aired on GB News on 4 October 2022, in breach of our broadcasting rules.
The programme included an interview between presenter, Mark Steyn, and a guest, Dr Naomi Wolf. During the interview, Naomi Wolf made serious claims about the Covid-19 vaccine, including that its rollout amounted to a pre-meditated crime – “mass murder” – and was comparable to the actions of “doctors in pre-Nazi Germany”. Ofcom received 422 complaints that alleged these comments were “dangerous” and included “misinformation” that went “unopposed”.
It is important to stress that in line with the right to freedom of expression – broadcasters are free to transmit programmes that include controversial and challenging views, including about Covid-19 vaccines or conspiracy theories. However, alongside this editorial freedom, the Broadcasting Code imposes a clear requirement that if such content has the potential to be harmful, the broadcaster must ensure that its audience is adequately protected.
Our investigation concluded that GB News fell short of this requirement by allowing Naomi Wolf to promote a serious conspiracy theory without challenge or context – for example through other contributions in the programme or by the presenter, who appeared to support many of her comments. There was also no scrutiny of the evidence she claimed to hold to support her claims.
We also took into account that the programme presented Naomi Wolf as a figure of authority, with particular knowledge and expertise in the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines. We consider this would have lent credibility to her unchallenged claims. Of particular concern was her significant and alarming claim that “mass murder” was taking place through the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccinations, which she repeated three times.
We found that the comments made by Naomi Wolf had the potential to impact viewers’ decisions about their health and were therefore potentially harmful. Given that GB News did not take adequate steps to protect viewers from this potentially harmful content, we have found the channel in breach of Rule 2.1 of the Broadcasting Code.
This is the second significant breach of the Code recorded against GB News . In light of this, we are requesting that GB News attends a meeting with Ofcom to discuss its approach to compliance.
You can read our decision in full (PDF, 409.1 KB).
Naomi Wolf also appeared on the Mark Steyn programme the following day, and made further claims about Covid-19 vaccines. Her comments were put into context by other views expressed during the programme, and a banner broadcast throughout the segment informed viewers that Naomi Wolf had “faced widespread criticism for Covid research”. Taking this into account, we will not be pursuing these complaints further.
Covid, compliance and freedom of expression
Since March 2020, Ofcom has received over 26,000 complaints about TV and radio coverage relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. Reflecting the weight we place on the right to freedom of expression, the vast majority of these complaints did not raise issues under our rules.
We have opened 11 formal investigations where the content raised serious concerns. Of these cases, we have found nine programmes in breach of our rules, one was found not in breach, while one investigation remains ongoing. Find out more about our broadcast standards work in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Complaints received about GB News to date total 4,560, representing 1.6% of all broadcast complaints made to us during this period. Of these 1,714 related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
After careful assessment, the vast majority of complaints made against GB News have not been pursued.
We have launched four investigations into the channel, and this is the second breach of our broadcasting rules recorded against GB News since it launched in June 2021.
An earlier episode of the Mark Steyn programme broke our rules by presenting a materially misleading interpretation of official data without sufficient challenge or context, risking harm to viewers. Our investigation into Talking Pints with Nigel Farage (23 August 2021) – relating to offensive language – concluded that the programme was not in breach of our rules. We are currently investigating whether Saturday Morning with Esther and Philip broadcast on 11 March 2023 broke our rules requiring news and current affairs to be presented with due impartiality.”
[https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/ofcom-finds-gb-news-in-breach-of-broadcasting-rules-for-a-second-time?utm_source=tw_graphic&utm_medium=social_org&utm_campaign=media23&utm_content=gbnews]Here is my statement in response:
“As a journalist, I am appalled that Ofcom censured me for primary source evidence directly from Pfizer’s own internal documents released under court order, presented in reports compiled by 3500 medical and scientific experts, including oncologists, radiologists, medical fraud investigators, RNs, biological scientists, and a range of other physicians and clinicians.
The documents contain 1223 fatalities in three months. In two of the reports compiled by our experts, using the Pfizer documents themselves, half of the adverse events, which included fatalities, occurred within 48 hours of the injection.
When it came to unborn babies, the deaths in Pfizer’s own documents include scores of fetuses, some of which Pfizer identified as suffering from ‘transplacental’ exposure to the vaccine.
A baby died after drinking its vaccinated mother’s breast milk; vaccinated mothers’ breast milk was found by Pfizer in its own review to be contaminated and injurious to babies.
Given that Pfizer knew by Feb 2021 the many ways in which its mrna vaccine was killing adults, babies and fetuses, with adverse events ranging from 3 to 1 to 8 to 1 ratios affecting women, and yet did not inform the public, but rather launched intensive campaigns to urge people, including pregnant women, to take this dangerous product, of course it is a mass murder event.
I speak as the granddaughter of a woman who lost nine siblings to the Holocaust.
We have an obligation to speak out against murder in our own communities.
Pfizer is under investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for deceptive practices and for possibly falsifying data. Both of these crimes are abundantly documented in the 500 pages of reports from the Pfizer documents compiled by our experts.
Ofcom should not penalize reporters or news platforms for presenting the truth, especially if that truth is of grave public significance. If Ofcom continues to censor primary source evidence of harms to women and babies from mrna injections, it too has blood on its hands and is an accessory to mass murder.
Of course I will consult my attorney to take action against this damaging censorship and this baseless reputational attack, which is the second one from a national government (the first was from our own White House and CDC) in relation to this important story.
Mark Steyn is a hero for not backing down in bringing facts about harms to pregnancy, fertility, breastfeeding and babies, to women and men in Britain and the rest of the world. These are facts that the UK Government, linked to Ofcom itself, sought and seeks to this day, to keep hidden.
The exposure of danger to the public which Ofcom todays assails, is exactly what real journalism is supposed to do. I will continue to speak out with lifesaving information to help protect women and babies.”
