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Prime time live

For those of you who want to contact ABC via e-mail, the address is: abc.news.magazines@abc.com. You can use the Contact ABC News page to get the link associated with Primetime.

I recommend giving your name and contact information, as you would with a letter to the editor. Keep it short and concise. Avoid ranting and sarcasm.
 
My e-mail to Primetime live:

I watched the Primetime Live episode : John of God.

I'd like to thank you for opening my eyes. I had only thought that the news media was out to get ratings by pandering to the beliefs of it's viewers. Now, I know it for sure. Thank you for clarifying this with your one-sided "documentary" of this quack-witch doctor. You presented one skeptic, and made him look to be a big jerk with your selective editting. I notice that you have a UFO special too. My psychic powers predict that this show will also have very little to do with evidence and reality as well.

Thank you again,

Ken
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thaiboxerken said:
My e-mail to Primetime live:
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While I concur fully in the content of your letter, it is likely to get brushed off. Sarcasm does not translate well to print.
 
Re: McFeeley

prewitt81 said:
Sorry if this has been said in one of the other threads already, but am I the only one that noticed the groping of all the female patients' chests, regardless of the ailment they said they had?
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Yes, I noticed, too.
 
I have an observation about the guy with the brain tumor. He said that it started with headaches so bad all he could do is crawl from his bed to the bathroom to vomit. So how does he get himself well enough to make a trip to Brazil? He seemed to have no ill effects of the tumor in any camera time he was shown in. I'm guessing that he was feeling a lot better through the medical treatment he did have BEFORE going to Brazil. Medical treatment got him feeling good enough to get to Brazil so he could tell himself magic old women saved him.
 
Prewitt said:
Sorry if this has been said in one of the other threads already, but am I the only one that noticed the groping of all the female patients' chests, regardless of the ailment they said they had?
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How could you miss it? Yagh. But it wasn't John of God. It was some pervert he was channeling.

Withnail, I agree. This guy was selected because he was doing better and had visited John of God before, hence there must be some relation.

I've put in a request to ABC for a 1-hour infomercial on my special quack nonsense crapola.

~~ Paul
 
My email to PTL:

-----

I'm normally a fan of PTL, but Thursday's show (2/10/2005) was a sorry piece of journalism. Even a cursory amount of research would have revealed the long history of hucksterism associated with the kind of "treatments" John of God. This in turn should have caused the reporter to give serious air time to skeptics of this sort of thing. The mere seconds given to the one skeptic hardly counts in this regard. As the show was presented it was little different than an infomercial.

The real problem here is that some poor soul who saw this episode will think to himself, "Gee, this guy was featured glowingly on a network news program so he must have SOME sort of abilities. Maybe I should ditch my medical treatments and go see this guy." If even one person abandons genuine medical care in favor of John of God or his equivalent, then your show will have been indirectly responsible for the negative consequences. Shame on you.
 
" I went to NYC, spent two days there and taped for two hours with John Quiñones. I ended up being misquoted, for a total air time of just eight seconds." -Randi

Poor guy. All that work for something that bad... shame on ABC.
 
My letter:

To whom it may concern:

I tuned in last night to view your "John of God" segment, expecting to see a reasonable and well-informed attempt by a major network news segment to debunk a fraud taking advantage of sick people..

I was absolutely disgusted to see what should have been an expose turned into a pathetic kowtow to superstition! What were you thinking? How could you possibly view what you did as a service to the public? In the entire segment, you interviewed ONE skeptical individual - and aired his views for what - less than 15 seconds? Why didn't you at least ask the ontologist what HE thought of "John of God", after his patient declined to accept life-saving surgery in favor of letting her breast cancer progress??

ABC is now officially off of my list of channels to watch for GOOD information. I guess I'm stuck with the cable news channels now, since I obviously can't trust you to do the right thing and at least show both sides of the viewpoint in a balanced manner.

If you wish to discuss this, you may contact me at this email address. Otherwise, good day.
 
John of god videos


He apparently sells DVD's as part of his healing process, the video is pretty horrifying. I cannot believe people let him do this to them.

But as sickening as JOG vids are the PTL episode was worse.
 
Re: McFeeley

prewitt81 said:
Sorry if this has been said in one of the other threads already, but am I the only one that noticed the groping of all the female patients' chests, regardless of the ailment they said they had?
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Just remember that it were the spirits of the "dead" doctors doing the groping, not John of God himself:p

As far as the nasal reaming is concerned, I highly doubt that the forceps he used are indeed legitimate, solid forceps. Sure, they'll penetrate into the nasal cavity just deep enough to induce bleeding (even though who knows? It could very well be fake blood used just to intensify the dramatic effect...). But unless anyone else could prove me wrong otherwise, I am convinced that this is nothing more than a very clever slight of hand illusion, nothing more, nothing less.

Here's why:

(1). Participants are required to have their eyes CLOSED during the "surgical procedure"

Why? Simply so that his surgical chicanery can be kept SECRET. But just to be fair, can anyone possibly tell me why on earth would the participants otherwise be asked to keep thier eyes closed???

(2). The overall program editing and camera angles were deliberately done in such a manner as to "hide" something.

OK, so it was ABC, and the FCC doesn't allow such graphic imagery on network television. Would John Quinones have shown the revealing graphic imagery on HBO or Showtime? Hey, if Penn and Teller could get away with throwing a live animal (was it a chicken? or a rabbit?) into an active mulcher just to have it presumably spit the creature's guts out the other end onto Teller, then why not John of God with his nasal surgery?

Or is it that John of God is not yet that accomplished of an illusionist showman as Penn and Teller to be able to pull off such a feat in front of a live camera???

But on the other hand, let's assume that the forceps he used WERE indeed legitimate, solid steel forceps. What would he tell the judge when he's facing fraud and manslaughter charges? That it wasn't "his" fault he accidentally and fatally stabbed someone in the brain? That it wasn't "he" who was performing the "surgery" but some centuries old "dead doctor"?

Sure, blame your faults and misgivings on a dead guy, see if the judge will buy that...boy, now that's the way to take REAL responsibility for your actions, now isn't it?
 
SRW said:
Here are the best photos I could find showing a nose opperation,



Did not do much good for the guys teeth.

http://visionthang.tv/slides/Operations - Heamostat/index.htm
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What this looks like to me more than anything is the old human blockhead trick that carnival perforers use sometimes. There is a sinus cavity directly back there and it is only covered by a thin membrane. Once that's perforated for the first time, I'd imagine a bit of blood but not much else. It looks impressive, but from people who've done it (Jim Rose in his book "Freak Like Me" describes how to do this in great detail) the main sensation you feel is a strong need to sneeze.

human%20blockhead%207.JPG


hb.jpg


Melvin5.jpg


Compare those to the pics on that link. Amazing similarity to my mind.

Sorry about the size of the pics, I don't know how to resize them.
 
Andrew Harter, or Mayne, whatever, has some pages on the nail in the nose trick in one of his magic books. My copy is autographed. :)
 
jzs said:
Andrew Harter, or Mayne, whatever, has some pages on the nail in the nose trick in one of his magic books. My copy is autographed. :)
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Cool!!! Wow Kitten DOES have good taste!
 
my letter to ABC 's SlimeTime:

Ths is to comment on your recent broadcast on "John of God". This was anything but impartial. This broadcast was not only one-sided towards the superstious point of view, but pretty much showed skeptics in a bad light. This is quite underhanded at best. Giving the skeptic less than 10 seconds of air time and misdirecting his quote of Benjamin Franlin to show him in a bad light is quite disgusting. I suppose that if one does not agree with your outlook, they do not even get the chance to present a proper arguement as to why. You are perpetuating these scientifically unproven notions with your biased and unfair "reporting".

Mr Quinones states that after 40 days, his shoulder did not heal after seeing John of God. But he gives this "healer" an out, Quinones didn't follow John of God's specific instructions, so THAT's why it didn't work!!, how convenient.

I think this was also a lead in to your 2 hour special on UFO's in a couple of weeks. Funny how the adverts for the UFO special started airing in the John of God program. I can only imagine how "unbiased" the UFO special will be. Perhaps someone with another point of view will get maybe 20 seconds this time, maybe more than 3/4 of a soundbite this time?

So much for reporting with any type of fairness or integrity.
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I know this has been dead for a while, but this is the first time I've gotten to sit down and collect my thoughts since reading Mr. Randi's commentary. I sent the following letter to Primetime Live:
Your show about the man who calls himself "John of God" has alarmed me greatly. I respect the journalists and producers at ABC as women and men of great intelligence, and so it puzzles me that a man who sticks forceps up someone's nose and claims to cure disease was not subjected to more scrutiny than he was. You really had the chance to show this man for the charlatan that he is. Instead, by irresponsibly giving him the benefit of the doubt, you perpetuate the myth. So what? If one more person dies because of this man, that's one too many. I wouldn't want this on my conscience.

If it will help my credibility any, the spirit of Albert Einstein possessed me and caused me to write this letter to you. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to ask the ghost of legendary chef Julia Child to make me a sandwich.
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I'm not looking for a pat on the back or anything, but since I have very few like-minded friends in matters like these, I just wanted to post it here where perhaps someone might appreciate it.

Has ABC responded on the air or on the website to any of the criticism?
 
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