Yesterday, noting an early morning phone call from Fox to appear on one of their shows several hours later, I mentioned without elaboration that this interview ultimately occurred via telephone. Since relocating to Charlottesville I have used the University of Virginia’s satellite uplink dozens of times, for most every cable network up to and including al Jazeera (where Sir David Frost has a show). It is much closer by a long shot than the alternatives, and the school makes a pretty penny off of it. A win-win — or so it would seem.

A couple of months ago, UVa — a public university, indeed Mr. Jefferson’s university — began insisting that their studios were not available to this Virginian, now some half-a-dozen refusals in a row and counting. The reason was always different — it’s too early; it’s winter break; we’re booked, whenever it is, etc. — though they didn’t even bother to supply a reason when turning me down for the Fox interview yesterday. It’s simply need-not-apply. And it’s not just Fox: while UVa hasn’t allowed me to use their studio to appear on Hannity and Colmes — for which I had to schlep more than an hour to Richmond; other times I simply had to regret — they’ve also turned me away when trying to do Glenn Beck (CNN) and one of the GE/NBC cable networks, as I recall.

The welcome mat was pulled after one on-air introducer made the fateful decision to note that I was speaking “from Charlottesville” — which could mean only one location. The prop-filled background, for anyone who looked up at that comment — and, it seems, someone did — was the familiar bookcase you might recognize from past appearances by former Virginia State Climatologist, and soon-to-be-former UVa professor, Patrick Michaels. Pat is a noted climate-alarmism skeptic, author of several books on the topic, and a man whose unsavory climate realism was something with which the university was unwilling to associate. He is now moving on to other (I won’t say “greener”) pastures. About my experience with the university, I will simply say he did not express surprise.

All of which is to say that, once a pleasantly vigorous speaking schedule winds down in the next few weeks, I will finally have the opportunity to pursue a conversation about the apparent selectivity with which certain taxpayer-funded facilities are made available. In the interim, store the anecdote with other mere coincidences now piling up on the rather tilted playing field of environmental speech.