NBC Weekend Edition-Astrology

Hamradioguy

Pyrrhonist
Hamradioguy
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
2,297
Do the folks at NBC actually believe this stuff? I just caught the last part of this earlier this morning. So I missed what the "talking heads" scientists had to say, but there was quite a bit of time devoted to the show's hosts waxing enthusiastic over their astrological charts.

Worse, is the NBC poll linked on their website: Do you believe in astrology? Granted only about 170 responses when I checked, but 77% replied "YES". Arrrghh! Come on rational thinkers- vote early and vote often.
 
I just checked the NBC News site to see if there was anything there. I didn't find anything pertaining to the matter aired today, but I did find these, both from Newsweek magazine:

Nixon and Dixon
Assigned to research the history of U.S. counterterrorism policy, a September 11 Commission researcher last year stumbled upon a bizarre discovery: in the aftermath of the Munich Olympic massacre in 1972, President Richard M. Nixon was briefed on terror plots that had been divined by professional psychic Jeane Dixon.
...
Dixon’s supply of psychic "intelligence" to Nixon is fully documented on little-noticed White House tapes. They show that the president's loyal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, gave the president detailed briefings on offbeat national-security forecasts from a woman that Nixon called "the soothsayer."
Click to expand...
For all his faults, I had thought Nixon was smarter than that. But apparently Dixon appealed to the president's anti-Jewish feelings, and consequently her **cough, cough** advice may motivated Nixon.

BeliefWatch: Ivy League
In October, the [Task Force on General Education at Harvard] issued an innocent-enough proposal. Given the prominence of religion in the world today, all students should be required to do coursework in an area called "Reason & Faith."
...
Criticism was loud and immediate—and came largely from the science faculty. "There is an enormous constituency of people who would hold that faith and reason are two routes to knowledge. It is a mistake to affirm that," says Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker. "It's like having a requirement in 'Astronomy & Astrology.' They're not comparable topics."
Click to expand...
Pinker's arguments won the day, and the task force withdrew its recommendation.
 
I saw the segment. It seemed totally biased to me...They showed the astrologers in their fancy rooms, very mystical, very well-lit. Then they showed one astronomer, very poorly lit, filmed at a bad angle, standing in front of a telescope. He basically said there was not any evidence to support astrology. Then they showed the astrologer again who said something to the effect of "humans are reluctant to admit there are things in the universe we don't know about. We just don't know" And then the astrologer said "this is real. This is math, and it is science." :jaw-dropp

Then they went on to spend about as much time going over the anchors' charts as they did for the whole rest of the segment. That was it in a nutshell.
 
pentimenti said:
Then they went on to spend about as much time going over the anchors' charts as they did for the whole rest of the segment. That was it in a nutshell.
Click to expand...

Holey cow... was this a local affiliate or the network? Who was the anchor? At what time was it broadcast? This sounds like an action item...
 
It was on the weekend edition of "Today" on NBC (Saturday, 2/10/07). I don't remember the time, but I would guess it was around 9:30 AM EST or so. The main anchor was Campbell Brown, but Lester Holt was getting his chart read as well.
Actually, I went searching the internet to see if there was any kind of comment made about the segment (which is how I found out about the JREF forum!). I was surprised that more of the skeptic community did not take notice of it. I also tried to find video of the segment on the internet, to take a second look and make sure it wasn't just my initial (shocked) impression that made it seem so biased, but was not successful.
The Today show website does have a page with the feature and a poll on it, as Hamradioguy said, but it just has horoscopes on there (sorry, I can't post the link yet as I am under my minimum number of messages quota.)
 
pentimenti said:
I saw the segment. It seemed totally biased to me...They showed the astrologers in their fancy rooms, very mystical, very well-lit. Then they showed one astronomer, very poorly lit, filmed at a bad angle, standing in front of a telescope. He basically said there was not any evidence to support astrology. Then they showed the astrologer again who said something to the effect of "humans are reluctant to admit there are things in the universe we don't know about. We just don't know" And then the astrologer said "this is real. This is math, and it is science." :jaw-dropp

Then they went on to spend about as much time going over the anchors' charts as they did for the whole rest of the segment. That was it in a nutshell.
Click to expand...

Yikes! Now I'm glad I missed the first part. Welcome to the world of rational thinking (most of the time anyway!) Pentimenti. I think you'll like it here.
 
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