The stated policy of New Zealand’s Fairfax newspaper group to discard all views and data that dissents with the chain’s own collectively-held opinion that climate change is an existential threat and is manmade is a challenge to science according to a local government figure, Rick Long.

Even more serious believes Mr Long (pictured) remains the subsequent decision of the nation’s news-content arbitrator, the Media Council, to uphold the Australian-owned chain’s decision.

Fairfax is now part of Australia’s Channel Nine Network.

Mr Long’s contention is that the decision to outlaw dissenting information by Fairfax, with the support of the Media Council, was particularly significant in terms of the mainstream media’s accepted role.

This is because the Fairfax chain controls the only daily newspapers in New Zealand’s chief scientific research centres, notably those in and around Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Palmerston North, and Hamilton.

Mr Long said that the public understanding was that greenhouse gas estimates were detected by atmospheric sensors.

In fact, he stated, they are estimates based on computer modelling, and differed widely, especially in New Zealand

The New Zealand publicly-disseminated hypothesis focussed on the animal contribution, he said.

It omitted component elements such as volcanic activity and water vapour, all contributors to the greenhouse gas syndrome.

This in turn remains further distorted because New Zealand media reports only events supporting its warming theory such as heatwaves while ignoring all icy weather and freezes to the contrary.

Mr Long explained to MSC Newswire, the National Press Club’s associated news site, that his main worry centred in fact on the active support given to Fairfax by the industry’s own arbitrator of content, the Media Council.

It was this support that gave the “proudly” proclaimed Fairfax auto-censorship on climate-dissenting information its sinister undertone, he noted.

He claimed that there was a “book burning” aura to the Media Council’s upholding of Fairfax’s announced policy.

This was because an arbitrating and at face value official and impartial referee board, the Media Council, had given its seal of approval to the Fairfax stated policy of reporting only one side of what the chain itself conceded was one of the central issues of the era.

Mr Long for many years has been involved as an elected official in Wellington and Central Districts regional, municipal, and health roles.....

To see Mr Long’s original letter to the National Press Club in full go to: www.nationalpressclub.org.nz

Witness to global peace keeping operations for 30 years

Stephen Whitehouse’s career began in broadcasting in Wellington and took him to the inner circles of United Nations headquarters in New York where secretary general Kofi Annan described the New Zealander’s technique as the “Whitehouse Way.”

He led the United Nations radio and television unit and his 30 year career there took him throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and the Balkans during which time he witnessed and recorded many commotions.

Stephen Alexander Whitehouse who has died in the United Kingdom suddenly at the age of 73 emigrated to New Zealand with his family in 1952.

He grew up in Wellington in an artistic and bohemian household, his mother, actress Davina Whitehouse, being a central figure in the young country’s burgeoning cultural scene. Visitors to the home included a young Sam Neil, Richard Campion (father of Jane), and Peter Jackson. The opening frames of Jackson’s film ‘Brain Dead’ were shot on the beach outside his mother’s house.

After graduating from Victoria University, Wellington, where he had excelled as a revue writer and performer, he worked for the Broadcasting Corporation before moving to Hong Kong for a stint on the South China Morning Post. A keen jazz enthusiast (he played tenor saxophone) he leapt at the chance to work at the UN and lived in the Park Slope, Brooklyn (the ‘real New York’ as he put it) from the early 70’s.

Retiring to Sandwich, Kent, he worked on the Festival Committee, took up the banjo, joined the local Liberal Democrats, avidly watched cricket and rugby and listened to his beloved Radio New Zealand, returning to Wellington every year for the NZ summer.

An enthusiastic amateur historian, he was also a volunteer at Sandwich Museum. A keen sailor during his earlier years, he recently became a trustee for the P22 gunboat.

Steve is survived by his wife Lynne O’Donoghue, sons Sasha and Sam from his first marriage, a stepdaughter Alexandra and stepson Daniel.

Strategy of reconciling eco-ideologists with popular base turns explosive

Controversial clinician still unrecognised in own country, New Zealand

Floors Mainstream By turning its own diminishing strength against it

Virtue signalling collided with narcotics trading

Affair continues to evoke more questions than answers.

Fourteen months ago we revealed dodgy direction party was taking

German born businessman dominated insurance in South Seas

Journalist considered as being primed to turn up heat on ruling family