Sir Bob Jones
nopunchespulled.com
The above is a New Zealand Herald website heading.
It’s extraordinary given it pertains to their own columnist and is totally inaccurate.
In fact the complaint quite rightly was not upheld as the subsequent article made clear. This is yet another typical newspaper sub-editor cockup in writing utterly misleading headings to stories, not through malice but instead slop.
The complainant protested at Hosking saying “many (get that – “many”) of those who died (in Italy and elsewhere) of coronavirus could be attributed to underlying health problems”. That is a cold hard fact.
Contrary to the Herald heading the Broadcasting Standards Authority found against the complainant’s infantile main charge of discrimination and denigration.
The Authority did find against Hosking’s sweeping underlying health assertion on the correct grounds that (my words) given the number of deaths, he couldn’t be 100% certain in his statement.
That’s true but I challenge the Authority to quote a single case in Italy or here or anywhere where coronavirus has killed an otherwise healthy individual. None exist.
In the broad thrust of his assertion Mike Hosking was in fact totally correct.
The Authority did make the point that some virus deaths would have lopped a few years off some lives. On the other hand we now know the biggest victim category were elderly dementia patients. As anyone knows who’s experienced that with a relative or a friend, which is most of us over 60, death is always viewed as a blessing.
What fascinates me most by this matter is the un-named complainant. What a snivelling bleak miserable sod he/she is. I’d give long odds that the real underlying objection was not to what Hosking said but instead to Hosking himself. He’s committed the ultimate sin of success and as I wrote yesterday, the most powerful human emotion on my observation is envy. This matter is a perfect example.
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