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Thursday, February 23, 2023

Mike Hosking: Maureen Pugh was ill-informed, but she's allowed her opinion


As bad as Maureen Pugh's attempts at climate change debate may have been, on balance, the media behaved worse.

TV3 made it a lead story, which was bad enough, given it wasn’t.

And they made it a lead story not only because Pugh is easy pickings, but because they so obviously and overtly and unprofessionally hate National, even when they keep telling us they are balanced.

But even their efforts were overshadowed by the headline in the Newsroom blog site; 'Climate deniers should not be MP's'.

Really? What condescending tosh.

The media are so far up their own jacksie at times, they have no idea how out of touch they are and how dangerous that is.

If climate deniers can't be MP's what's next? Thick people? People the media don’t like? Boomers?

When you start seriously suggesting such things you are in fact arguing against democracy. What makes democracy so valuable is it is, allegedly, a representation of all of us.

The good, the bad and everything in between.

It's not perfect, but it's better than anything else they have been able to come up with.

The truth of it is, Pugh is not alone in thinking climate change is not man made and you can yell the science is settled all you want - they don’t believe you.

The truth is there are scientists who argue a not dissimilar line to Pugh's.

It doesn’t make them right; it doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. But you can't cancel them because in a democracy they have a right to a view and a right to a vote.

And I would defend their right to be wrong and ill-informed, in my view, more than I would ever defend the right of some jumped up journalist prescribing who should and shouldn’t be allowed to represent us.

Rawiri Waititi on Valentine's Day was celebrating the death of Captain Cook and I found that offensive.

But he went to the local electorate and got enough votes to get to Parliament and you have to respect that.

Imagine if I had said radical Māori should never be allowed to be in Parliament. How do you think that would have gone for me on Twitter or the socials? How many formal complaints do you reckon that would have drummed up?

Maureen Pugh was, at least, honest in her view and for that she was ridiculed by a channel that hates her party and a journo who thinks he's superior.

I don't think, at the end of it, she was the worst of the offenders.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.


10 comments:

DeeM said...

Be very careful, Mike. You're assuming that your OPINION is correct and that everyone who agrees with you is ill-informed or stupid.

Show me the evidence that climate change is man-made, Mike!
I'd love to see it. But I can't find it anywhere. I've been looking for years. And I'm not talking about a bunch of pie-in-the-sky computer models which are never right and should have been binned 20 years ago.
I CAN find a shit-load of empirical data and evidence that shows it is NOT man-made, though. That's probably what Maureen found.

You strike me as the kind if guy who can't be bothered doing his own research. Pretty bad for a journo, but no surprise these days.
Talking of the media being so far up their jacksie, Mike. You're right up there with them it seems but you've obviously lost your sense of smell.

Anonymous said...

Not a good look Mike, as I too want to see your evidence backing your climate change comments. I wonder if these "jurnos" are getting some sort of kick back for pushing their views. Similarly listening to
Lush spout the same disinformation last night. SIMPLE PROVE IT.

Tinman said...

Pugh may or may not be correct (I suspect she is) but the shutting down of her free speech by the lefties who make up the current National party leadership is at the cost of all New Zealand.

That, not the predictable communist-led media hysterical reaction, should be the main point of this story.

Not only is Mike's comment ill-informed but the example he uses, a racist elected by racists in a racist seat verbally masturbating about the murder of a good man (incorrectly) ruins any credibility the article might have had.

Not one of Hosking's better efforts.

Phil Blackwell

Ian Bradford said...

Why was Maureen Pugh's statement not a good attempt? She merely asked to be shown the proof that humans were causing climate change. Sounds like she is the only one in National who has any sense. The whole lot of science illiterate National MP's seem to know that humans are causing climate change. Well in fact I am very science literate and I can tell you that humans are NOT causing climate change. Climate has been changing for millions of years all by natural processes. The sun, oceans and clouds control the earth's climate.
I am disgusted at the way National MP's and the Greens also science illiterate, bullied Maureen Pugh to the stage where she was forced to retract- Just like Galileo. Mr Luxon you disgust me more than anyone. You need to go.

John Beattie said...

After the IPCC released their first report 31,000 scientists (most with PHDs) wrote to them saying the facts do not support their conclusions.
There is roughly 400 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere. 97% of that is natural, leaving 12 ppm that is man-made. NZ's contribution is 0.16% of that. About 1 part in 5,000,000. Without CO2 we would not be alive as that is what feeds plants and trees.
If AGW is real, prove it. And methane is not a so-called greenhouse gas and is a fraction of the atmosphere compared to CO2.
John Beattie.

Anonymous said...

Are attols/volcanic islands being flooded due to climate warming (let’s pay zillions to save them) or is it a geological condition?

Doug Longmire said...

Like Dee, I have been looking for credible scientific proof that the (human caused) global warming/climate change is actually happening.

It is a fact (scientific !) that the planet is slowly warming, in fits and starts, as we emerge from the Litte Ice Age of about 300 years ago.

The IPCC is consistently wrong in it's predictions of doom.
None of their predictions have come true:-

1/ No 50 million climate refugees by 2010, as they forecast in 2005. Zero, in fact.
2/ No increase in rate of sea level rising.
3/ Artic Ice is still there, and not melting away
3/ Antarctic Ice is actually growing.
4/ Extreme weather events, world-wide are NOT increasing.
5/ Forest fires, world-wide, are not increasing.
6/ Yes - the planet is slowly warming, in fits and starts, as it emerges from the Little Ice Age of 300 years ago, when the river Thames and the English Channel froze over.
7/ Just recently, the IPCC has admitted that they have been, for decades, using an incorrect multiplying factor in their computer modelling. They admit that this actually invalidates all their previous predictions by approx 50%.

It is worth pointing out that for most of the 500 million years or so of planet Earth' history, CO2 levels have been between 2000 and 7000 parts per million. Our current levels are literally CO2 starvation.
If CO2 levels drop below 160 ppm, all plants stop growing, and die. Which means ALL LIFE on Earth dies.

Doug Longmire said...

If National (Luxon) is really committed to the "climate change" panic situation, no doubt he will follow the Climate Change Commissions recommendations.
FYI, Mr Luxon:-

The Climate Control Commission’s recommendations have been costed out by NZIER.
Full compliance has been costed out. The cost to NZ’s economy will be $86b per year.
That is 86 BILLION DOLLARS per year – EVERY year. $86,000,000,000 per year.
That works out to $17,000 per year per head of population.
This is fast track economic suicide.
Translated – a typical four person family will be paying 4 x $17,000 = $68,000 per year, EVERY year just to meet the dreamland CCC’s recommendations. This is a THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK !! This is economic train wreck suicide.
Bear in mind that this is only to stop NZ’s CO2 emissions, which are only 0.17% (= 1/600th) of total global emissions. i.e. NZ emissions are basically zero. So – goodbye Kiwi’s and the world is laughing.

Ross said...

My understanding is the West Coast Regional Council ( I hope I have the correct name) had written to Shaw last year asking for evidence that man affects any change in the climate. Shaw did not respond. So they asked Maureen Pugh, in her role as an MP for the region to follow up on the issue. She was not necessarily expressing her own view.

The response from Luxon, Willis and Bishop was appalling. It showed Luxon to be a bully (remember how he treated Harete Hipango last year when she went to speak to some VFF supporters) and lacking leadership skills. If he had issues with Maureen's question he should have discussed it with her behind closed doors.

I think we need a lot more like Maureen Pugh in Parliament.

Luxon is dragging down National's chances of winning the election day by day.

Anonymous said...

Global warming? Check out Frozen Planet 2 on TVNZ on demand for the effects on Antartica