NBC reporter scolded on air after comparing UN climate change report to alien invasion

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An NBC News reporter raised eyebrows and prompted pushback from an MSNBC host after suggesting that climate change is like an alien invasion that is visible to everyone.

The reporter, Jacob Ward, made the odd comparison following the release of the United Nations climate change report that claims a number of “transformative changes” will be needed to save nature and humanity from climate change and other threats.

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“Yeah, you know, it really is devastating, Stephanie. I mean, this is how dark the times are in the view of researchers… people are sort of getting ready for the horrors that this report is talking about. So it is dark times, I gotta say,” he told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle during a Monday show.

Ruhle then lamented that “there’s not even a consensus around climate change,” prompting Ward to make the comparison.

“I know, I know. I mean, that’s the thing, right? You look at it and you think this should be our great unifying moment, right?” he asked. “This is the moment when space aliens land with ray guns and are threatening all of us and we all band together like you see in the movies. This is it. And yet, that’s not somehow happening.”

“This is the moment when space aliens land with ray guns and are threatening all of us and we all band together like you see in the movies. This is it. And yet, that’s not somehow happening.”

— Jacob Ward

The over-the-top analogy was even too much to handle for Ruhle, who quickly pushed back against the reporter’s characterization, saying it’s “not fair.”

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“But it’s not,” she interjected. “For your average American at home, there are not space aliens coming out and saying, ‘We’re going to take you over.’”

She added: “This is an intangible. So how do we help them understand? Because it’s not fair to put it that way.”

“For your average American at home, there are not space aliens coming out and saying, ‘We’re going to take you over.’”

— Stephanie Ruhle

The reporter was receptive to the criticism and immediately admitted that his rhetoric was not grounded in reality, though doubled-down on the need to be alarmist.

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“I feel that it’s the kind of thing where we should be able to band together, we should be able to access something really basic in our programming that just says, ‘Existential threat, humanity, band together,’ and we’re not doing that for some reason.”