I received an acceptance from Mr. Rodriguez followed, twenty minutes later, by a withdrawal. Obviously, such behavior is pretty routine for twoofers. If you're being asked to defend pernicious falsehoods and bogus science, the prudent course is to avoid anyone likely to ask hard questions. There really was no necessity for anyone to request polite treatment for Rodriguez. My policy is never to attempt to humiliate anyone on the show.
Here is Rodriguez's second e-mail:
"Very surprised of your lack of proffesionalism. I saw your "challenge" on JREF and was indeed surprised after I agreed to appear on your show. I have reached more than 500 million viewers around the world and have been in shows of all kinds but never was actually challenged on an open forum to do YOU a favor. I do not have the time and stamina for this kind of actions. Thanks for your offer and I hope you find others to do your show. "
William Rodriguez
Here is my reply:
Dear Mr. Rodriguez,
As I don't know you, I'll play along and proceed on the assumption that your acceptance was genuine. It is my policy to announce invitations to prospective guests/debaters on the JREF. To heighten interest, I bill these offers as "challenges." It hasn't occurred to anyone, until now, to act offended. What the nature of the offense might be is, of course, impossible to guess.
How gracious of you to do me a favor, if only for twenty minutes! I was under the impression that I was doing one for you. Possibly we could both use some lessons in humility.
You may have noticed that Jim Fetzer showed the courage of his convictions by coming in and defending his views. Many 9/11 conspiracists feign interest only to vanish without further notice, a la Webster Tarpley, or, as in Jim Hoffman's case, they schedule their appearance only to duck out at the last minute. Now, we are supposed to believe that you, for obscure reasons, were so offended by the public announcement of my invitation to you that you just couldn't possibly bear to go on. Uh-huh. Sure. Makes perfect sense.
Apparently, it strikes you as unusual that I would want to advertise my show to its biggest audience. Yeah, that must be it. So, presumably now the playbook calls for you to notify the fantasist community that you bravely accepted my offer, but withdrew twenty minutes later over my lack of "professionalism" in announcing it on the site where I announce ALL my invitations.
Look at the bright side. You're dealing with twoofers: They swallow sillier stuff than that.
Ron Wieck
Now, I'd bet heavily that Rodriguez had no intention of appearing on 'Hardfire.' The "lie" he accuses me of telling during my debate with Les Jamieson is, typically, no lie at all. I had asked Mike Newman of NIST about William Rodriguez. Newman replied that NIST was eager to talk with him, but he proved extremely elusive. He seemed far more interested in grandstanding at hearings than in actually sharing information. According to Newman, Rodriguez had changed his address and refused to respond to NIST's inquiries. If Newman had got anything wrong, Rodriguez had the perfect opportunity to set the record straight. He prefers to act offended over something that is a bit too cryptic to describe in words.
So, can we simply write off William Rodriguez as just another fraud? He will preach to the uncritical choir, but when an opportunity arises to make his case, he conjures up an escape route.
