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Wednesday, March 02, 2011

John Campbell and the Moon Man Ken Ring

Lot of anger over the way John Campbell put local moon man in his place two nights ago. Brian Edwards was the first to critique John, and he didn't like what he saw...

"John, your mindless, bullying, tirade against 'moon man' Ken Ring on tonight's Campbell Live was perhaps the worst piece of egotistical, self-important, out of control, closed-minded, biased, unprofessional non-interviewing I have seen in more than 40 years of New Zealand television."


Harsh words from the great Edwards. There seems to me two issues here, the first is are there any ways to predict earthquakes from this moon bloke and the second is how the media should deal with that.

Well the first is pretty easy to look at, can the gravitational pull of the Moon trigger faults to cause earthquakes - well yes there could be some impact on that, COULD BE, but that doesn't mean Ken Ring can predict earthquakes, and if one takes Ken's predictions and lines them up against the distance of the moon his predictions don't stack up in any way shape or form, as the NZ Sciblog points out...



Ken Ring can't predict earthquakes based on his theory of the Moon, he can't because there is none, it's as simple as that, his predictions don't match the reality of recorded earthquakes and the reality of recorded earthquakes isn't reflected anywhere in the distance of the moon from the earth.

In short Ken Ring is wrong and scare mongering the people of Christchurch isn't what is needed now.

So how did Campbell handle the interview? Well, I hardly thought it was the baying beast of the bully as Brian Edwards has projected, I thought John was not only right but his role is to denounce crazy shit like this. His isn't a straight news show, he's not reading the news, I watch Campbell because I trust his call on a situation.

We all know the mainstream corporate media are an untruthful lying whore who warp for ratings success, in such an environment one looks to those characters one trusts and associates with, I trust Campbell and I watch him to put the boot in to clowns like Ken Ring.

If John had been hosting the actual News hour and had interviewed like that, the criticism would be fair, but he doesn't, he hosts a show called Campbell Live, and that's what I'm tuning in for.

In any event, John was very gracious in giving an apology last night to his viewers if they thought he went too far.

Regardless of his apparent breaching of interview protocol, he was right to challenge Ring in the aggressive way he did and let's be clear on the last bit, Ken Ring CAN'T predict earthquakes.

12 Comments:

At 2/3/11 9:38 am, Blogger Rather Dull Stuff said...

I'm shocked at your shallow and deeply conservative responser to this issue. your analysis of Ring's theory is desperately lacking in proper detail. Anyone who judges Ring without proper research of his methodology is coming from a place of ignorance and fear. If Ring is able to galvanize people to act on sensible preparation, how is that different from EQNZ adverts. Just because he has the balls to give dates doesn't make him evil. It makes many, like you & John Campbell, incredibly freaked out, and in knee jerk reaction, aggressive

 
At 2/3/11 10:16 am, Blogger noizy said...

@WNB: "Anyone who judges Ring without proper research..." Okay, try these links...

http://sciblogs.co.nz/the-atavism/2011/03/01/ken-ring-cant-predict-earthquakes-either/

http://sciblogs.co.nz/the-atavism/2010/11/19/ken-ring-cant-predict-the-weather/

http://www.sillybeliefs.com/ring.html

...and you'll see that Ring's theories deserve all the derision they receive.

 
At 2/3/11 6:25 pm, Blogger Fantailer said...

I think there are two points missed:

one: the knowledge of GNS scientists is as useful as the knowledge of Ken Ring - ie., absolute F-all, except for awareness raising.

two: When John Campbell and his lackeys goes ape on a soft target like Ken Ring or Terry Serepisos or "striking" actors, that performance sits in the context of the many many interviews where they soft-soap corporates and ministers and the PM. What people learn is its fair to go after the maverick, not those with power.

 
At 2/3/11 10:45 pm, Blogger James George said...

It was a poor piece of interviewing by Campbell. If Ring's theories are loopy, and I'm very skeptical of his schtick then a decent interviewer would've allowed him to spout his mumbo-jumbo and tackle him with hard science and allow Ring to expose himself. By closing him down Campbell both failed to discredit him and to allow Ring to discredit himself. The only one discredited here is Campbell. Campbell likes to position himself as the voice of the people, but more and more it's looking like he sees the people as subservient to the voice of John Campbell.

 
At 5/3/11 7:26 am, Blogger Unknown said...

Bomber......Your obviously as deluded with your own personality as John Campbell is with his.

 
At 9/3/11 3:57 pm, Blogger Whom? said...

"Bomber......Your obviously as deluded with your own personality as John Campbell is with his." - hehehe. That's all that needs to be said here really innit.

I haven't been here for years and I can see why now.

Bombers just another of the worlds Michael Moores, a distraction in other words.

If you haven't looked into it enough Bomber and yet blather on ignorantly on your blog thinking you have Ken Ring all sussed then you are utilizing precisely the same (assumed) "voice of the people", sensationalizing tactics as John Campbell.

Ken Ring has never claimed to be able to predict earthquakes as is so overstatedly ascribed to him by every idiot with a cake hole who's done as much research on his claims as you and John Campbell have abviously not done.

All he claims is that there are certain conditions that incorporate the moon & tidal patterns which he has observed with hindsight and then looks ahead at predicted weather and moon patterns and says these conditions are likely to come about again so there is from his opinion a high likelyness of there being some further large earthquakes around these times.

But you wouldn't know that because you're too enamoured with JC's pseudo media bad boy stance and uncontrolled egotism.

He's a twat and you sound like you're on the same path to total sun blockage via over inflated ego.

 
At 9/3/11 4:51 pm, Blogger Bomber said...

Thank you Whom, while your diatribe against me was amusing, it still comes back to the point that Ken Moon CAN NOT predict earthquakes via the moon, and the research based on his past predictions lined up against actual earthquakes is irrefutable and while the gravitational pull of the moon can create 'land waves' even when you put this up against a distance vs earthquke chart the numbers are still tiny to give any credibility to any moon predicts earthquake game.

Science is science and while I'm all for expanding ones mind and looking outside the box, Ken is quackery and snakeoil merchantry.

You can attacks me as much as you like, but he facts don't stake up when you compare his predictions with where the Moon is and when earthquakes occur.

 
At 13/3/11 2:47 am, Blogger Sam Hill said...

I think everyone should shut up and we'll see if it actually happens. I wouldn't be surprised if it did but if it doesn't I don't care either. Some shit is obviously going down in this world, whether its natural or man-made chaos thats comes, I hope you can all defend your own lives with the same venom that you are trashing each other in words of scorn.

 
At 13/3/11 1:29 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

Ken Ring's weather predictions have never failed my business. I have consulted with Predict Weather for many years in determining the right time to schedule film shoots. On many occasions my American clients have risked coming to NZ for a 4 day shoot in hope of having the the weather they require. Never once have they being disappointed or failed by the weather predicted by Ken Ring. Whether or not he can predict earthquakes (and I don't believe he has said he can), the man is credible and deserved some respect. There may well be, a lot to be learnt from Ken Ring. Shame on Campbell. How that man has kept his job is a disgrace.

 
At 16/3/11 10:59 am, Blogger shivin said...

First of all, Ken Ring is not the first one to predict earthquakes via the moon. I saw a documentary on Nat Geo about a eruption somewhere in the Caribbean..(I think it was Montserrat) and how the scientists claimed to have predicted the eruption to the minute using Ken Rings theories. Unfortunately for these scientists, they were later found to have "predicted" the eruption after the actual event. Although this is going slight off topic, Ken Ring is not the first to believe this rubbish... also, John's quote of his "2 weeks +or- of new or full moon" was the game finisher! That was the entire month! It easy to claim to predict something when you predict all the possibilities. Its like betting on everything in a roulette table and then calling yourself Nostradamus.

 
At 19/3/11 12:40 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

John Campbell is a little weakling in a position with a lot of power that he egotistically misuses.

 
At 20/3/11 3:56 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

whether Ken Ring is right or wrong he has caused thousands of Cantabrians who have already gone thru a lot of stress to go thru even more stress, for goodness sake let us have time to mourn our lost ones in peace without having to put up with these blogs from selfless morons saying how Mr Ring never fails them.

 

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