Earlier this week, we received a letter from two Sedona area residents asking us to investigate 5G cell phone towers coming into the city of Sedona.
It took a quick email to discover there are currently no companies that have requested a permit for construction in Sedona city limits but city staff will alert us if we don’t happen to see a permit request on the city’s docket first.
The readers’ request included a link to a lengthy homemade video on You Tube posted by a user with a worldwide conspiracy-esque username alleging all sorts of health and governmental conspiracy concerns regarding the effects of 5G networks.
Like smart meters, the “negative” health effects of 5G wireless networks are dubious and unproven. The transmissions from smart meters and cell towers are in the form of radio waves, which is part of the same electromagnetic spectrum as visible light. On the narrow and high end of spectrum are gamma rays and X-rays, which can be harmful because they ionize atoms in material with which they come in contact, i.e., bump electrons from their orbits and cause all sorts of subatomic damage.
On the wide and low end of the spectrum — on the opposite side of visible light — are radio waves, such as those used by cell phones. These waves are non-ionizing meaning they miss electrons and atoms and pass through material harmlessly.
We are bombarded with billions of such waves as “radiation” every second coming from stars across the universe that have expelled radio waves, X-rays, gamma rays and visible light, only a minute fraction of which we are ever aware of. Yet the term “radiation” scares people because we use it almost exclusively to refer to the narrow and dangerous portion of the EM spectrum.
The microwave devices in cell phones themselves that generate the radio signals can be dangerous and have been proven to cause some cancer in some people, but the radio signals themselves are not.
Yet the issue was not the science of cell phones but rather the source the two Sedona residents were using: The video they cited made extensive use of “news” reporting from the RT network. The video alleged a massive conspiracy against our health and “plans” to build cancer-causing towers every two to five houses across the country.
Of course, this is false.
RT or “Russia Today” is not a “news” channel. It is a video network masquerading as a legitimate news agency broadcasting in English, French, Arabic, German and Spanish. RT is owned by the Russian government and works in conjunction with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the organization formerly known as the KGB.
Americans should be under no illusion that RT is not working against our best interest. The videos it spreads across the internet are intended to mislead. The green “RT” logo should be an instant red flag.
In 2017, the United States government forced RT America to register as a “foreign agent,” an international diplomatic category that states a person or organization is actively carrying out the orders of a foreign government.
In 2018, the head of the United Kingdom’s Office of Communication said RT is a de facto defense ministry and is Russia’s way of “waging the information war against the entire Western world.”
RT is a Russian propaganda farm whose sole goal is to spread disinformation to the West. It produces videos promoting conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation and gives conspiracy theorists and fringe figures a platform to espouse their views, even those that are wholly false, debunked and disproved, all with the intent on disrupting Western societies and faith in our governments and public and private institutions.
I currently teach a class on journalism and media law at Yavapai College and one of our topics is how to spot “fake news.” RT is the prime example of “fake news” — i.e., political propaganda masquerading as news.
Ultimately, is 5G dangerous? Not likely, but it could be, so scientists, government agencies and private institutions will continue to study its effects on our health.
Is RT dangerous? Absolutely and unequivocally.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
