New Zealand Skeptics has bestowed its annual Bent Spoon award on the news media for its coverage of "Moon Man" Ken Ring's earthquake predictions.
NZ Skeptics awarded its annual prize for "journalistic gullibility" to all news media outlets and personalities who took Mr Ring's earthquake prediction claims at face value.
That had misinformed the public and contributed to 50,000 people leaving Christchurch "with all the inconvenience, cost and emotional harm that that caused," Skeptics media commentator Vicki Hyde said today.
"We believe that it is the business of the professional media to ask pertinent questions on behalf of the public when presenting material as factual," she said.
"Many, many media outlets and journalists failed the basic standards of their profession...they did us all a disservice."
