That was great
It was great to see Sylvia get nailed and nailed good. And who was that skull headed creature of the same ilk (gawd she was hard to look at) - I didn't get her name but Stossel nailed her big time. He just told her to her face (which must have taken some fortitude) that she obviously couldn't do what she claimed.
How do these people survive after such exposes. Unfortunately I know they will.
I was really surprised that Randi and the challenge did not come up
Bentspoon
It was great to see Sylvia get nailed and nailed good. And who was that skull headed creature of the same ilk (gawd she was hard to look at) - I didn't get her name but Stossel nailed her big time. He just told her to her face (which must have taken some fortitude) that she obviously couldn't do what she claimed.
How do these people survive after such exposes. Unfortunately I know they will.
I was really surprised that Randi and the challenge did not come up
Bentspoon
FFed
Muse
Hazelip said:
I taped the show on my vcr and it is easy for me to transfer it to my computer and make a video for windows media player. The only problem is that it will be about 50 MB and I can't email that size. I can upload it via FTP to you or someone else who can host it.
FFed
Muse
ya she was pretty scary.
I had never seen this beast before, but she must be popular if she agreed to do the reading for only $1800. I wonder how long before she is on Montel.
I had never seen this beast before, but she must be popular if she agreed to do the reading for only $1800. I wonder how long before she is on Montel.
My opinion of this seems to be quite different (I've reposted it from "TAM and other Skeptical Events" thread, since this is where the discussion apparently will bes:
I thought Stoessel stacked the deck pretty heavily in the segments I saw on forests and psychics. (The forest one was just junk, imo...never really defined what kinds of forest he had limited it to...and conveniently dealt only with the U.S., and even then, only cursorily mentioning problems caused by re-planted "forests" and kind of airly dismissing the criticism. Not a word about the -extremely serious- deforestation of the world's rainforest.
Viewers could easily come away from this lumping all "forests" together...with the inaccurate generalization, for example, that "all is well with our forests" and "nothing has been lost" based on what Stoessel said...and therein being totally and completely wrong.
I thought it was a sloppy job--basically just presenting things to support conclusions he already believed.
Likewise, with the psychic. Where to begin? Maybe I'll transcribe in for the Paranormal forum because I totally disagree that it was "balanced". Even the choice of Rhea seemed only to underscore how unlikeable and unappealing "psychics" seem (and her "discounted" price of $1800?!)
I would think someone would have cringed when he said that "at least Sylvia doesn't charge". He apparently meant "charge for appearances on Montel where she gives readings" but he never clarified it that she -does- in fact, charge...and quite a lot.
Having Mark Klaus's opinion of Rhea's work for him was a legitimate criticism and well done. The drawing of the murderer she said had (incorrectly) was the wrong person...that was a good point, too. But Stoessel didn't get an actual FBI agent to say what he claimed they say, that "No psychic has ever solved a crime". Nor did he bother to mention the use of psychics as lecturers at the FBI Academy.
As for Shermer, sorry, but he just doesn't seem very well informed about the specifics of the subjects he was asked about. He works from the same premises over and over ("they emphasize the hits and ignore the misses")...and that makes him not seem the most effective critic.
All in all...not impressed....not surprised....
I thought Stoessel stacked the deck pretty heavily in the segments I saw on forests and psychics. (The forest one was just junk, imo...never really defined what kinds of forest he had limited it to...and conveniently dealt only with the U.S., and even then, only cursorily mentioning problems caused by re-planted "forests" and kind of airly dismissing the criticism. Not a word about the -extremely serious- deforestation of the world's rainforest.
Viewers could easily come away from this lumping all "forests" together...with the inaccurate generalization, for example, that "all is well with our forests" and "nothing has been lost" based on what Stoessel said...and therein being totally and completely wrong.
I thought it was a sloppy job--basically just presenting things to support conclusions he already believed.
Likewise, with the psychic. Where to begin? Maybe I'll transcribe in for the Paranormal forum because I totally disagree that it was "balanced". Even the choice of Rhea seemed only to underscore how unlikeable and unappealing "psychics" seem (and her "discounted" price of $1800?!)
I would think someone would have cringed when he said that "at least Sylvia doesn't charge". He apparently meant "charge for appearances on Montel where she gives readings" but he never clarified it that she -does- in fact, charge...and quite a lot.
Having Mark Klaus's opinion of Rhea's work for him was a legitimate criticism and well done. The drawing of the murderer she said had (incorrectly) was the wrong person...that was a good point, too. But Stoessel didn't get an actual FBI agent to say what he claimed they say, that "No psychic has ever solved a crime". Nor did he bother to mention the use of psychics as lecturers at the FBI Academy.
As for Shermer, sorry, but he just doesn't seem very well informed about the specifics of the subjects he was asked about. He works from the same premises over and over ("they emphasize the hits and ignore the misses")...and that makes him not seem the most effective critic.
All in all...not impressed....not surprised....
GroundStrength
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Neither are we.
GroundStrength
Unregistered
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Clancie said:
Come on Clancie I was just channeling Claus for a minute.
Yes, I saw the show...its entertainment not science. Stoessel is a reporter not a scientist. I thought that the show was better than average for most debunking-type shows. But hey now I can eat and swim!
thaiboxerken
Penultimate Amazing
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As usual, anything that exposes psychics doesn't impress Clancie. That's ok, your post was expected to be nothing more or less.
).Kopji
Philosopher
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I need to watch more television.
...Wow that statement looks just as stupid as I thought it would.
ABC Myth Busting
I agree this looks more like edutainment, but it's nice to see there's an anti-market for the CNN crowd.
There is a series of four shows airing on Court TV by a psychic claiming to have helped the local police:
Psychic Detectives does jref
All stories by the same lady, as far as I can tell. It is worthwhile looking at her background.
...Wow that statement looks just as stupid as I thought it would.
ABC Myth Busting
I agree this looks more like edutainment, but it's nice to see there's an anti-market for the CNN crowd.
There is a series of four shows airing on Court TV by a psychic claiming to have helped the local police:
Psychic Detectives does jref
All stories by the same lady, as far as I can tell. It is worthwhile looking at her background.
Since Stossel was almost certainly making the correct assumption that MS. Browne and the Mummy woman were lying fraudulent scum why should he go out of his way to be fair.
I must admit, didn’t see the SB segment, so judge it I will not (errr) but the psychic “detective” was plainly shown to be a “grief predator”. To hell with her and fair an balanced.
The other seg’s were just fluff crap; probably tacked on during a pre-production meeting by lawyers to make it seem less like ABC is picking on PGPLFS (poor godly psychic lying fraudulent scum).
As for the tree seg the “myth” being addressed was “are there less forests land in North America” not in the rest of the world (Amazon deforesting scares the doo-doo out-a me), not whether old growth is better than new replanted trees.
I must admit, didn’t see the SB segment, so judge it I will not (errr) but the psychic “detective” was plainly shown to be a “grief predator”. To hell with her and fair an balanced.
The other seg’s were just fluff crap; probably tacked on during a pre-production meeting by lawyers to make it seem less like ABC is picking on PGPLFS (poor godly psychic lying fraudulent scum).
As for the tree seg the “myth” being addressed was “are there less forests land in North America” not in the rest of the world (Amazon deforesting scares the doo-doo out-a me), not whether old growth is better than new replanted trees.