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Br'er Kamm is having one of his hissy fits about RT and Sputnik, this time because of their coverage of "Covid sceptics", people with whose position I strongly disagree. As ever, "You'd never even get an interview" if you had such an outlet on your CV.

An interview with whom? The Daily Telegraph? That has become the in-house journal of "Covid sceptics". There are plenty of them elsewhere, too. Their influence was so great that the lockdown was imposed too late and then lifted too early, with today's consequences and with many more to come.

Perhaps Kamm means The Times, to which one might add that he, who is in no sense a professional journalist, was appointed without any application process whatever? But is he even still there? His main outlet would now appear to be CapX, which must pay little or nothing. He does not need the money, but that is beside the point.

CapX certainly has a tiny readership, but then nor would any national newspaper, never mind something like Prospect, have anything like the audience of RT, which, moreover, is relatively and increasingly popular in the Red Wall areas where General Elections are decided. Our people are allowed on it, you see. And neither to be laughed at, nor to be talked over.

All in all, Kamm means that with RT or Sputnik on your CV, then "You'd never even get an interview" for the opportunity to be paid little or nothing in return for writing for almost nobody. But in any case, you very well might. Indeed, RT's and Sputnik's coverage of "Covid sceptics" might very well be used to identify candidates for recruitment to several of the grander old titles.