SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
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January 23, 1997.
SI Electronic Digest is the weekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)
http://www.csicop.org.
The Digest is written and edited by Matthew Nisbet and Barry Karr. SI
Digest has over 1800 readers worldwide, and is distributed via e-mail from
the
Center for Inquiry-International, Amherst N.Y., USA.
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CSICOP publishes the bi-monthly SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine for Science
and Reason. To subscribe at the $17.95 introductory price, call 1800-
634-1610. The Jan/Feb issue features Claudio Benski on "Testing New Claims of
Dermo-Optical Perception."
In this week's SI Digest:
--Council for Media Integrity Stock Fund Adds Shares In CBS
--CSICOP Appears on CFTO Dini Petty Show.
--CSICOP Expands SKEPTICAL INQUIRER News Service.
--UFO Candidate Emerges in Arizona.
--Anger Over Psychic Hotline Charges Spurs Gruesome Chainsaw Murder.
--Mother Charged In Exorcism Death.
--Creation Vs. Evolution Resources On-line.
--Washington State Legislators Want Disclaimer on Evolution.
MEDIA STOCK FUND ADDS SHARES IN CBS
Furthering CSICOP's campaign to leverage a more balanced portrayal of science
and pseudoscience in the mass media, the Council for Media Integrity has this
week added additional shares in CBS/Westinghouse to its Media Stock Fund.
The Media Stock Fund, launched in the summer of 1997, asks friends and
supporters of CSICOP to help it acquire common stock in media conglomerate
companies. "The Media Stock Fund" will allow CSICOP to take part in
shareholder meetings, where it can question the infatuation with the
paranormal increasingly demonstrated in television programming.
"We are deliberately targeting each of the major television networks, and
well known media conglomerates CBS (formerly known as Westinghouse), General
Electric (NBC), News Corp (FOX), Time Warner (WB, Turner Broadcasting), and
Disney (ABC)," Paul Kurtz, chairman of CSICOP said at the launch of the Media
Stock Fund. "The media have now virtually replaced the schools, colleges, and
universities as the main source of information for the general public. The
irresponsibility of the media in the area of science and the paranormal is a
worldwide problem. But it especially applies to the United States, where the
media have been distorting science, and in particular, presenting
pseudoscience as genuine science. Indeed, we are appalled by the number of
'documentaries,' which are really entertainment programs, presenting fringe
science as real science."
The practice of organizing shareholder response within a company is common
among advocacy groups that seek socially responsible corporate conduct through
shareholder passed resolutions. As a shareholder, CSICOP will have
opportunities to attend shareholder meetings, submit viewpoints to shareholder
publications, and sponsor shareholder resolutions. While exercising these and
other shareholder rights, CSICOP will be representing a broad, international
constituency who support the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-
science claims from a responsible, scientific viewpoint while providing a
balanced viewpoint to the public-at-large. "The Fund will allow us to make
shareholder meetings into accountability sessions for the media giants when
they package superstition and pseudo-science as fact" Kurtz said.
With the "Media Stock Fund", supporters may contribute monies that will be
applied towards the purchase of stock in General Electric, CBS, NewsCorp,
Time Warner or Disney. Dividends will be applied to the operating cost of the
Council For Media Integrity.
Sponsored by CSICOP, the Council is comprised of a network of distinguished
members of science and academia committed to monitoring the media. A
statement endorsed by the members of the council maintains that , "If the
United States is to continue to provide leadership and compete in the global
economy, we need to raise the level of scientific literacy and understanding
of the general public."
CSICOP APPEARS ON DINI PETTY SHOW
CANADA, Jan. 23-- CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell traveled to
Toronto on Wednesday and appeared on the nationally broadcast CFTO Dini Petty
Show. Nickell discussed his decades long career investigating the paranormal
and supernatural. Host Dini Petty acknowledged her belief in ghosts, but
Nickell responded by saying that "in twenty-five years of haunted house
investigations, he had yet to find evidence of ghosts. We have yet to find
haunted houses, only haunted minds." Nickell is the author or editor of over
15 books including SECRETS OF THE SUPERNATURAL and ENTITIES. Both are
published by Prometheus Books, Amherst NY 1-800-421-0351.
CSICOP EXPANDS SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS SERVICE
Print journalism may be the last source of balanced science reporting in the
media. But why wait for journalists to come to skeptics for their opinion and
evaluation? CSICOP has expanded its opinion and features news service to
include regular and timely submissions sent to the desks of editors across the
country.
CSICOP has developed a pin-point, customized database of features, science
and opinion editors at major U.S. newspapers and magazines. In the past,
CSICOP has routinely contacted these editors through press releases, faxes, e-
mail and phone calls. Now, in addition, CSICOP plans to deliver timely,
print-ready
feature articles and opinion submissions that highlight skepticism and
advance critical thinking.
Think tanks and advocacy organizations like the Heritage Foundation and
Brookings Institute have been very effective at disseminating their message
to the print media through regular opinion and feature articles. Editors have
come to rely on them for convenient, alternative viewpoints and specialized,
expert information. In the field of the paranormal and pseudoscience, CSICOP,
with its prestigous international network of fellows and consultants, has the
ability and the talent to provide newspaper editors with print-ready valued
resources.
For more information, contact Matthew Nisbet at 716-636-1425.
UFO CANDIDATE EMERGES IN ARIZONA
PHOENIX, AZ-- Former Phoenix city councilwoman Emma Barwood may be the first
UFO candidate in American political history. Barwood says that if elected
Arizona secretary of state she will demand an explanation for any UFOs sighted
over Arizona. Barwood emerged on the UFO scene following a March 13 incident
of strange lights in the Arizona skies that prompted calls from across the
state. She was quoted in national news reports demanding an investigation
from state and federal officials.
In reports following the incident, the military has hinted that the lights
were caused by a military exercise that involved flares dropped from
parachutes over a military training site.
Since March, Barwood has become a celebrity within the UFO fringe community.
She has been featured on the sensational, outlandish and conspiracy laden Art
Bell radio show.
Political pollster Earl DeBerge told the Associated Press that he did not
expect she would do well at the polls with a UFO platform. "We've looked at
UFOs as an issue, and most voters think that's a bunch of hooey," he said.
ANGER OVER PSYCHIC HOT LINE SPURS GRUESOME CHAINSAW MURDER
Jan. 19, 1997 SAVANNAH, GA-- The Associated Press reported that a father,
allegedly angered over his daughter's $20,000 worth of calls to psychic hot
lines, was charged with hacking her to death and dismembering her body with a
chain saw. The Father told police that he was also concerned that his
daughter planned to take his 7-year-old granddaughter to Holland.
MOTHER CHARGED IN EXORCISM DEATH
Jan 19, SAYVILLE, NY-- A mother and her eldest daughter, believing the
youngest daughter possessed by demons, suffocated the 20-year-old girl with a
plastic bag, police reported on Monday. According to the Associated Press,
the police said that the family had recently begun studying the Afro-Caribbean
religion of Santeria. The youngest daughter had apparently balked at taking
part in religious ceremonies.
The mother and oldest daughter were chanting prayers when police arrived on
the scene of the murder. "The account given to us by the mother is that she
believed the daughter was possessed by demons and this was an effort to rid
her of those demons" a police detective told the Associated Press.
CREATION VS. EVOLUTION RESOURCES ON-LINE
To read the National Association of Biology Teachers statement on evolution,
go to:
www.nabt.org/evolution.html
Recently, the NABT changed its platform to exclude the adjectives
"unsupervised" and "impersonal" in its statement about evolution. Many
charged that the change was prompted by political pressure from religiously-
motivated proponents of the "intelligent design" theory of creation.
Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science
Education and CSICOP fellow, reports on the NABT statement at:
www.natcenscied.org/nabtart.htm
WASHINGTON LEGISLATORS WANT TEXTBOOK DISCLAIMER ON EVOLUTION
Molleen Matsumura, Network Project Director for the National Center for
Science Education has sent around a copy of
SENATE BILL 6394 submitted to the State of Washington 55th Legislature.
"A new section is added to chapter 28A.150 RCW to read as follows: All
science textbooks purchased with state moneys must have the following
notice placed prominently in them.
A MESSAGE FROM THE WASHINGTON STATE LEGISLATURE This textbook discusses
evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a
scientific explanation for the origin of living things, such as plants,
animals, and humans. No one was present when life first appeared on
earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be
considered as theory, not fact. The word "evolution" may refer to many
types of change. Evolution describes changes that occur within a
species. (White moths, for example, may "evolve" into gray moths.)
This process is microevolution, which can be observed and described as
fact. Evolution may also refer to the change of one living thing to
another, such as reptiles into birds. This process, called
macroevolution, has never been observed and should be considered a
theory. Evolution also refers to the unproven belief that random,
undirected forces produced a world of living things. There are many
unanswered questions about the origin of life which are not mentioned
in your textbook, including: Why did the major groups of animals
suddenly appear in the fossil record (known as the "Cambrian
Explosion")? Why have no new major groups of living things appeared in
the fossil record for a long time? Why do major groups of plants and
animals have no transitional forms in the fossil record? How did you
and all living things come to possess such a complete and complex set
of "Instructions" for building a living body? Study hard and keep an
open mind. Someday, you may contribute to the theories of how living
things appeared on earth."