The Professors Million Dollar Backlash

Roadtoad said:
It's expensive as hell to bring a legal challenge to this man's behavior, but the precedent exists, (Thank you, Winston Wu), and perhaps there's an attorney who'd take the case pro bono. It's needed. This kind of smear job should NOT be allowed to stand.
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What smear job?

He isn't going to convince anyone that he was unjustly treated except those who already are heavily anti-Randi; even his peers are laughing at him right now. He did himself no favors with this stunt, and he failed at getting the most important thing he wanted -- a huge publicity stunt on Oct. 31st with the JREF's name attached to it. In fact, the whole thing backfired in his face since the police got involved; a third party with no details of the affair would simply say "So he showed up outside cemetery hours and the cops threw him out? Serves him right."

What you're seeing now is a frantic tantrum for attention. He deserves none; he tried to play tricksy with the big boys, and got smoked. You don't spend legal resources on tantrums unless you have a corporate attorney you're already paying and he has nothing better to do with his time.
 
Sherman Bay said:
A little more extended and contentious, perhaps
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Not even that really, some people have been far more agressive and went on for years. Corndog George is a recent example, Carlos was a partiularly bad one several years ago, Edge has been applying for and arguing about the challenge since before there was even a forum, although he is really just extended rather than contentious, and there are plenty more examples around. Much as The Professor would love to be special, he really hasn't caused any more fuss than many other claimants.

Roadtoad said:
1.) The whole of The Professor's "challenge" should be kept public, ideally as a sticky, available for perusal by one and all. It should be shown as how NOT to make a challenge. Ideally, commentary could be included with all of his correspondence with JREF, to demonstrate why this challenge has been rejected.
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Well, the various threads discussing it are public and will not be deleted. I can't really see them being made sticky, but they shouldn't be too hard to find with tags or searches.

2.) If it were me, I'd send a press release to all the major media, as well as any local media that might have an interest, showing just what kind of a "challenge" David Koenig was attempting to mount. After the first two or three letters, I think anyone with a brain would be able to figure out why this file is now closed.
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I think the problem here would be "that might have an interest". "Nut makes claims no-one cares about about organisation hardly anyone has heard of." is not really the kind of headline that sells. If The Professor makes public claims where they will be seen, then there is no problem with those being countered, but I can't see any point in trying to make a big deal about issues that will be mostly restricted to a few specialist blogs and forums. Also, see my next point.

3.)One of the things which is critical to any libel case is the question of Malice. TP has proven malice time and again. I think that Jeff and Mr. Randi should sue the hell out of David Koenig, that it should be public, that there ought to be as much publicity regarding this as can be built. This man has lied, and tried to weasel his way through the whole process. He's now trying to smear the reputations of James Randi and Jeff Wagg. Not cool.

There needs to be a consequence for this kind of behavior.[/QUOTE]

This I very much disagree with. The thing about The Professor is that he's nobody. He's a rather unsuccessful, pretty much unknown third rate magician. The extremely transparant reason for all his nonsense here has been to try to garner some publicity, which has pretty much failed miserably. Actually suing him, or just generally making a big deal out of this, would achieve nothing and would be giving him exactly what he wants.

As I said to Sherman Bay, even on this forum The Professor has really been nothing unsual. Other people have been far more agressive and insulting, far more prolific in spreading their complaints around the internet and far more annoying in their general conduct. The response is to simply ignore them. The only people who believe their claims are the cranks who already have anti-Randi angendas, for whatever reasons. One more thrown into the mix won't make any difference, but treating one as if he is special will. By far the best reponse to The Professor is to simply ignore him, and listen to the dying howls of protest as he fades into the mists of obscurity.
 
Cuddles said:
By far the best response to The Professor is to simply ignore him, and listen to the dying howls of protest as he fades into the mists of obscurity.
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If only we could catch those howls on a recording device inside a faraday cage...
 
Cuddles said:
Actually suing him, or just generally making a big deal out of this, would achieve nothing and would be giving him exactly what he wants.
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And libel cases, like any other litigation, have the potential for getting messy.

A legal website I occasionally visit used to have a "Defamation FAQ".

It said, in full:
Q. Should I...?

A. No.
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I wondered-seeing as TP is employed by Universal studios in some degree-it would be fun to wirte them informing them of his slanderous ways.
Yeah they may not give a damn ,but it would sure be funny to have him pulled into his boss's office! :D
 
Jackalgirl said:
If his ultimate goal was to be refused by JREF -- why?
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My guess - and this is only a guess - is so he can claim that JREF isn't serious about investigating paranormal phenomena, the MDC is a fraud, and JREF only rejected his challenge because they knew he would succeed.
 
He's hilarious old Dave,he replied to my email tonight,with the usual anti JREF rants.
Changing threads,Jeff Wagg being involved in false reports to police and so on.

He should write sitcoms. :D
 
I told you so. Can't be buggered finding the posts, though. Anyway, there's a new kid on the block, Paul something-or-other, who claims he's got an "entity" attached to him. I've already called "shenanigans" on that one, but have your fun. I know you will. :)


M.
 
Moochie said:
I told you so. Can't be buggered finding the posts, though. Anyway, there's a new kid on the block, Paul something-or-other, who claims he's got an "entity" attached to him. I've already called "shenanigans" on that one, but have your fun. I know you will. :)


M.
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Moochie there was never any doubt,but like any catch you have to throw out the bait.:)
 
Moochie said:
I told you so. Can't be buggered finding the posts, though. Anyway, there's a new kid on the block, Paul something-or-other, who claims he's got an "entity" attached to him. I've already called "shenanigans" on that one, but have your fun. I know you will. :)


M.
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I called hypnogogic experience, but they are not usually reported to occur as frequently as he does.
 
eirik said:
I think it is a sad case. It's like watching a train crash, as many have pointed out. You can't look away...

I know some here disagreed with my "interference" on halloween, but I hope we can put that to rest.

IMO the JREF should never sue this man, no matter what he says of the JREF. No sane person will ever take this seriously. He is obviously challenged in one way or the other. Ignoring him is the best way to go about it.
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On further reflection, I'm not disappointed that the police were notified of his illegal activities. Thank you, Eirik. You did the right thing and probably brought this whole sad business to an earlier conclusion than it would otherwise have been.

My opinion is that TP was manipulating this dishonestly from the beginning, he was just very clumsy at it. He found out too late that he was in way over his head and out of his league.
 
RoboTimbo said:
On further reflection, I'm not disappointed that the police were notified of his illegal activities. Thank you, Eirik. You did the right thing and probably brought this whole sad business to an earlier conclusion than it would otherwise have been.

My opinion is that TP was manipulating this dishonestly from the beginning, he was just very clumsy at it. He found out too late that he was in way over his head and out of his league.
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James Randi has been running the challenge HOW LONG? He's considered one of the greatest magicians, ever, and The Professor thought he had a chance at scamming the man? He wasn't dishonest, he was delusional.

He was going to cheat James Randi. Yeah, good luck with that! :rolleyes:
 
Roadtoad said:
James Randi has been running the challenge HOW LONG? He's considered one of the greatest magicians, ever, and The Professor thought he had a chance at scamming the man? He wasn't dishonest, he was delusional.

He was going to cheat James Randi. Yeah, good luck with that! :rolleyes:
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Look, he calls himself The Professor. I have yet to see his degree or at what university he has his appointment. He also calls himself the Psychic Samurai. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Other than its Cicero-worthy alliteration, it is an entirely meaningless name: I did not see much reference to the Shinto religion in his incantation.

Fraud or delusional or both. I still can't decide.
 
As to the name, you can call yourself almost any name at any forum (as long as someone else does not have that name and a few other qualifications).

I only hope The Professor does come back onto this forum. Then start making a positive contribution to the forum, without the rubbish that he has made so far. However I may be dreaming as he has not been on the forum for more than two days.
 
TP was, in the beginning. mildly amusing, then just became boring - a fatal malady for an "entertainer". Maybe he would make a good study for somebody one day, and at least the record here has been maintained, even though his rants deleted from the Magic Cafe would have been more telling.

But really, he's just not worth the bandwidth. Now he is just fish 'n chip news

Norm
 
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FWIW (close to zero) my view of the Dave Koenig Experience -

First I thought TP's MDC application might be interesting but I very quickly formed the opinion that all he was after was publicity for whatever show he was putting on at the Devil's Chair on Halloween. When this fell through (thanks eirik :)) it seemed he had switched tack and was just attempting to sneak a basic magic trick past Randi and the JREF :jaw-dropp

On seeing his rants at TheMagicCafe it seemed he may have realised there was no way he would ever succeed in his cunning plan and was smokescreening in an attempt to save his reputation with his friends at TMC. His constant anti-JREF whining and moaning and his blatant lies regarding the actions of JREF staff and forum members finally annoyed me so much I signed up at TMC forum (Auntie Pastie) to ... ahem ... put forward an alternative point of view.

Then there came a brief period when I began to suspect that possibly he was in fact sincere but had some issues ... and that a certain "friend" of his was leading him on and winding him up in such a way as to cause DK to just get angrier and angrier. This might be an appropriate time to say "Hi!" to Jim Callahan. I began to pity DK for his choice of "friends" - at one stage I honestly felt DK was on his way to total meltdown.

Shortly thereafter, having read even more of Psychic Samurai's posts at TMC, I went back to my opinion that the whole thing had just been an attempt at gaining undeserved publicity for the Halloween performance by having the JREF name attached to the show, followed by a very poor attempt at getting the million for performing a magic trick.

Azrael 5 said:
He's hilarious old Dave,he replied to my email tonight,with the usual anti JREF rants.
Changing threads,Jeff Wagg being involved in false reports to police and so on.

He should write sitcoms. :D
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The funniest thing I find about the whole thing is the damage he has done to his reputation at TMC. It seems quite a few members there now have a more accurate idea of his "abilities" and honesty. You exchanged emails with DK? I hope you suffer no long term damage ;) As to him writing sitcoms ... I don't think he's got a hope in hell - the plot(s) would be far too unbelievable.


Dave, if you're reading this, I just googled "dave koenig psychic" at Google UK. You may be interested in the top two results returned -

1. JREF Forum - Threads Tagged with david koenig
2. [Moderated] Psychic Samurai applies for MDC...apparently... - JREF ...

Apologies, but there just aren't enough laughing dogs available in the entire universe for me to fully express how much I'm laughing at you, Dave, not with you.

Schadenfreude tickles my funny bone.
 
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