‘Today’ Cancels Appearance of Author Who Criticizes GE : Television: Activist Helen Caldicott says NBC cut her from the show because her new book attacks network’s owner.

Anti-nuclear crusader Helen Caldicott has accused NBC of canceling her appearance on the “Today” show because her new book criticizes General Electric, the company that owns the network.

Caldicott, the Australian doctor who guided the group Physicians for Social Responsibility to prominence, had been booked since last fall to appear on “Today” next week to promote her new book, “If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth,” according to “Today” Executive Producer Jeff Zucker.

He declined to discuss why she was dropped, but a source on the morning program who asked not to be identified said that the maverick physician’s appearance was canceled “because of concerns about her credibility,” and not because of anything to do with GE.

Caldicott, whose work helped to inspire a recent boycott of General Electric by anti-nuclear activists, as well as last week’s Academy Award-winning documentary about the company, “Deadly Deception,” thinks otherwise.

“I was booked, the day was set, and then (NBC) actually received the book,” Caldicott said. Within days, she said, the appearance was canceled.

“I used GE as a prototype organization in the book, and GE owns NBC,” Caldicott said.

“I suspect they wouldn’t have canceled if I hadn’t used GE as a case history (of a company that she believed was harmful to the environment).”

Zucker said that General Electric had no involvement--direct or indirect--in the decision to cancel Caldicott’s appearance. He also said that the show’s book editor had not read Caldicott’s book when the decision was made.

“I can guarantee you that General Electric had nothing to do with it,” Zucker said. “We don’t do things like that.”

NBC News spokeswoman Katherine McQuay, speaking for General Electric, said “GE had no knowledge of this entire incident or involvement in it. Therefore, there is nothing to say about it.”

In her book, Caldicott said, she blames GE for releasing deadly radioactive gases from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state and claims that the company’s ownership of NBC has compromised the network’s news coverage of issues regarding nuclear power.

“I talked about corporations and that we must rein them in,” Caldicott said.

“GE has been involved in nuclear weapons production since the end of the Second World War. It develops triggers for every nuclear weapon made in the U.S.”

Fran Rosencrantz, director of publicity for W.W. Norton and Co., which published Caldicott’s book, said that “Today” producers told her that they were canceling the activist’s appearance because she was no longer considered credible.

“There was a little bit of feeling that she was quite radical,” Rozencrantz said.

Caldicott, who in 1983 was ousted from Physicians for Social Responsibility due to political in-fighting but was honored by the group’s Ventura County chapter last month, admitted that her claim against NBC was based on “circumstantial evidence.”

But Caldicott, who said she appeared on “Today” several times before this book was written, said she couldn’t think of any reason other than her book and its criticisms to quash “Today’s” enthusiasm.

“I’m deeply concerned about freedom of speech in this country,” Caldicott said. “How can we teach people the truth about saving the earth when the media are owned by the very corporations that are killing (the Earth)?”