On Tuesday, Hosking named Mooney, and four other MPs, on his Newstalk ZB show, alleging the information came from an "impeccable source".
Mooney responded yesterday morning on X (formerly Twitter).
The former lawyer says he had expected "better from an untrained student journalist working on the primary school newsletter on their first day".
Labelling Hosking’s allegation as a "scurrilous" claim, Mooney says he did not leak a story to the media, does not know anyone who did, and was not approached for comment before his name was reported.
"Who cares if you defame someone in the eyes of the nation without giving them a chance to respond first, as long as you get to breathlessly announce your so-called ‘scoop’, that is in fact literally fake news," Mooney’s X post says.
Mooney tells Mountain Scene he is contemplating making a formal complaint with the NZ Media Council, and has already complained to NZME and Hosking.
"They’ve said they’ve received my complaint and they’ve offered an opportunity to come on their show.
"We’ll see.
"I could go on the show and read him my tweet, I suppose, and get him to respond to it.
"I’ll have to think about that."
In response to a request for comment from Scene, NZME says "we have nothing to add".
Meanwhile, Mooney says the National Party had a "good process" at its caucus on Tuesday, "and I can very confidently say we’re 100% behind the Prime Minister and focused on serving New Zealanders in probably one of the hardest times in the last century, in some respects, and also ensuring that we win this next election".
