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On Friday, December 1st, right-wing CNN host Glenn Beck featured an hour with John Edward, the “psychic” who has refused to accept the JREF million-dollar prize, for a reason (?) that he almost gave to Beck. See a 10-minute video clip at tinyurl.com/y98xzw. Early in this clip, Edward suddenly and hilariously described himself as an “educator,” denying that he’s any sort of an entertainer. And, at point 4:08, he displayed his skill at evading a simple, direct question, when cornered. Beck had been speaking about Harry Houdini – and getting that matter all wrong, too – while Edward claimed his ignorance of all this. Make no mistake about it: John Edward is very well aware of Houdini’s history; for him, that’s defensive preparation. Then, at the 4:40 point in the video clip, Glenn hit Edward with the one question he dreads more than any other. Watch, and see how Edward wriggled out of this dilemma, and how Glenn happily allowed himself to be finessed, bypassed, and outsmarted by Edward. Of course, it’s obvious that Glenn has already accepted Edward as genuine, so he was only doing the de rigueur mention of the challenge that his writers put into his script, and he abandoned any obligation that he might have had to insist on an answer to his question. He said to Edward:
A guy who picked that mantle up is a guy who offered you a million dollars. His name is The Amazing Randi, umm, he was… that was his “stage” name … umm, offered you a million dollars. He says he can debunk you. Why would you not take that money and…
[Edward interrupted Beck]
If I… I was on Larry King Live once, and he asked me that same question, and I made a joke and I offered the same thing, you know, would I allow myself to be tested by somebody who’s got an adjective as a first name? [Beck laughs] Or would I go to do what I did, which is, I went to the University of Arizona, and participated with the Human Energies Systems Laboratory, among other people who do this, where they were taking this more incredibly and serious, I – you know – and I didn’t go there to be tested, ’cause of any other reason, because I was curious, like – you know – like, there was a scientist who wants to try to measure this in some way and I think it was – you know – interesting for people who want to learn more about some of the preliminary things that was un –, there’s a book out called “The Afterlife Experiments”…
At this point, Beck interrupted and changed the subject…
Folks, Edward had to get in there and out-talk Beck – fast! – to deflect the basic question: “Why would you not take that money?” He delivered 158 words in 30 seconds – that’s more than five words a second! – and he never referred to the prize money or answered the question. I ask you to just read that section as fast as you can, to see if you can do it in 30 seconds. Of course, Edward was desperate to get away from the question, and as you see, host Beck greased the exit for him.
More importantly, did Beck see through the scam, and just not care? The fact that CNN repeated this show several times, indicates that it might have been a direct order from higher up in CNN, for Beck to blandly accept – and promote – the farce. We can only wonder.
But we shouldn’t be too surprised. Even Matt Lauer of the NBC Today Show has shown recently that he embraces woo-woo notions such as speaking with dead people. I’d have put Matt among the major TV personalities least likely to go to The Dark Side…
Aussie reader Martin Edge:
I have written various letters to various people in the Australian government regarding homeopathy and magnetic therapies and some have actually responded. The most comprehensive came from the Shadow Minister for Health and recently promoted to deputy leader of the opposition, Julia Gillard, MP. She explains that there was a review of such medicines 18 months ago and the Howard Government recently announced funding of A$5,000,000 into the effectiveness of complementary medicine. She also points out that Australians [annually?] spend A$800,000,000 on alternative medicines alone.
Randi comments: It seems to me that investing 1/160 of the cost of a bad investment to discover if there is any value in it, is a good move. I must explain that a “Shadow Minister” is one not yet officially in power, but expected to be. To return to Martin’s account:
[MP Gillard] included in her response a paper submitted by The Hon. Christopher Pyne, MP, former Minister for Health and Aging, which details recommendations for the reform of complementary medicine. These are, quoted from the document:
1) The TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] ensures that quality standards for all ingredients for use in complementary medicines are legally enforceable and that the evidence required to be held by companies (sponsors) to substantiate claims, be subject to much more rigorous assessment.
2) The TGA convene a stakeholder group to identify incentives to encourage innovation and research in complementary medicines, including data protection and market exclusivity.
3) The Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council facilitate a consultation process with the complementary medicines sector and other stakeholders to clarify the position of complementary medicines in the National Medicines Policy and the National Strategy for Quality Use of Medicines.
4) A database be established to identify researchers and centers of excellence to facilitate complementary medicines research in Australia.
5) Homeopathic medicines and related remedies making therapeutic claims will regulated to ensure they meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy.
6) That the government take a more active role in ensuring that consumers have access to reliable information about complementary medicines, and the skills to interpret this information to be able to make informed decisions.
7) To better integrate the adverse events monitoring of complementary medicines, action will be taken to create a greater awareness among all health professionals and consumers of the potential for complementary medicines to interact with other medicines, and ensure [that] consumers are better informed about the potential risk of importing medicines for personal use.
8) The government will consult to determine the needs and priorities for research into complementary medicines.
For the full response : www.tga.gov.au/cm/cmresponse.htm
This is a start, but misses one of the main points I brought up which was that I have written to the suppliers of homeopathic and magnetic therapies and told them of the JREF US$1,000,000 challenge and they refuse to take it, and the only reason they refuse to take it is that they know their products are useless.
I figure the first entry for point #4 would be the JREF challenge. Point #5 does include "efficacy," which is good.
There is also discussion about the labeling of homeopathic remedies (which currently says there is no proof this stuff works and might be changed to say that there is proof this stuff doesn't work).
I think for this process to finish with a real result, Australians need to write to either the Honorable Tony Abbot MP or to Ms. Julia Gillard, MP. Written letters hold greater power in the first instance.
Yes, I believe we should encourage Australian readers to send letters to MPs Abbot and/or Gillard. This is the way things get done. Politicians react to constituents who make a fuss…
While we’re in this part of the world, we should mention that staff members of Australia’s ABC-TV don’t look upon the current use of the US pseudo-scientific series, “Psychic Investigators," as “harmless fun” but as an affront to their viewers. They have asked their managing director Mark Scott, and the head of television Kim Dalton, to take it off the air. In a letter copied to 22 members of the science and religion units, they claim that the program – running over the summer in the prime timeslot of 8pm, Thursdays – damages the broadcaster's reputation for presenting quality science programs.
Science broadcaster Robyn Williams says of the series, "It's polluting the airwaves," that it is "boring" television, that though it appears to be factual, it uncritically presents psychics as accurate and honest. And, most importantly, the imported show gains credibility by sharing a timeslot with “Catalyst,” a real Australian science program. Says Williams,
Continuing to heavily promote and broadcast this program is making us [ABC-TV] a laughing stock and seriously erodes the scientific credentials that we have worked so hard to establish.
To date, management has not replied to the letter or answered queries from these inquirers. The letter-writers admit that they have little hope of getting the series pulled off the air, because ABC-TV management, who invested in the series
…don't want to lose face. What was important for us... was to have on record the fact that we have nothing to do with this and are extremely displeased about it running on ABC, let alone in the Catalyst timeslot.
Reflecting public sentiment, the Australian Skeptics nominated the ABC's head of programming, Marena Manzoufas, for its annual Bent Spoon award, presented to the "perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle." To explain, Webster’s defines “piffle” as, “nonsense, as idle talk or trivial writing.” The Age newspaper, a leading media agency in Australia, describes the series as, "Rubbish," while the Sydney Morning Herald calls it, “drivel,” and The Australian newspaper says it’s “unforgivable, mumbo jumbo." Will this have any effect on ABC-TV management? No, not if those dollar signs continue to appear in the air to them…
I’m amused to see the official blurb for this series. It’s categorized under the heading, “Show Categories: News/Documentary, Science-Fiction,” surely a strange – and significant! – combination. The blurb reads:
True life crime events get a paranormal treatment in this documentary series about detectives and psychics working together in the field. Presenting two vastly different perspectives, both the logical and the mysterious worlds are represented in an attempt to solve actual crime events shrouded in ambiguity.
Once again, the United States of America shares its cultural and technical expertise with Australia by exporting a TV series. Mind you, ABC-TV Australia came after it willingly, attracted by the potential earnings they saw at the expense of common sense and media responsibility. Whether this attempt to have the series withdrawn will succeed or not, my suggestion would be to keep it before the public, but run a follow-up discussion after each show showing how inane it is…
Reader “Bobby” writes:
I'm watching Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" for the first time ever on The Discovery Science channel and what do I see during the commercial break but a commercial to get a free copy of the King James version of the Bible. I'm given the option of calling now or talking to my Mormon neighbor (my neighbors are Mormon?) for more information on how to receive this book of make-believe and fairy tales that will guide me to where God wants me to be in my life.
Thankfully the show just came back on and I can get back to the real world.
Bobby, the DVD version of Cosmos – which has all sorts of added features, inserts, and behind-the-scenes material, is free of such nonsense. Cosmos is still a major production, a tribute to Carl, and something that should be seen in every classroom.
Bobby appended a Charles Darwin quotation which I’d never seen before:
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
I like that…
To those of you who have recently ordered copies of my books “Flim-Flam” and/or “The Faith Healers” from the JREF, or who have purchased copies from bookstores, I offer you apologies. The latest printings of these books has been so badly done by the publisher, that I have formally requested to have the rights of both these books returned to me, and I have asked that they print no more of them. The printing quality is so bad that some folks have written to me and actually inquired what the illustrations were supposed to show. This is simply carelessness on the part of the publisher; by recopying in order to produce another edition, the intelligibility of illustrations was totally lost.
Some good news! Though we're going a little crazy trying to fit them into the itinerary of TAM5, we welcome the fact that Trey Parker and Matt Stone – creators of "South Park” – will be in attendance at Las Vegas both Friday and Saturday, the 19th and 20th of next month, and will be interviewed by Penn Jillette. We must recognize that folks like this, with such busy schedules and ever-changing obligations, have a difficult time promising us their valuable presence. We're always privileged when our friends offer their time and talents to us. I'll bet that our audience will have many pertinent questions to lay before Trey and Matt! One small caveat: there is always the small chance that this, too, will change – but of course a wandering meteor might also land in the auditorium...
If you haven't yet registered, get thee to www.amazingmeeting.com without delay. For those of you who haven't made hotel reservations yet, The Riviera has been kind enough to extend our discounted rate until January 4th, 2007. Don't delay!
Yes, this SWIFT is a little short due to pressure of other obligations. But you, too, have to get ready for New Year's Eve and the launching of 2007, right? Until next year, with all of its exciting potential, I'll say sayonara...
