CSICOP Takes to the Airwaves

SkeptInq (SkeptInq@aol.com)
Fri, 3 Apr 1998 11:47:52 EST 

 It's been a busy week for CSICOP and a successful week for promoting the
message of skepticism...

 On April Fool's Day, newspaper readers in southern Florida awoke to find
CSICOP's list of the Top Ten Strangest Hoaxes of All Time published as an
opinion editorial by the Miami Herald. (www.herald.com/opinion/columns/).  The
full article is also availabe on www.csicop.org.

 The release generated radio interviews across North America.  Barry Karr, Joe
Nickell and Matt Nisbet took to the airwaves for interviews on CNN radio, NBC
radio, the nationally-syndicated Jerry Hughes Show, Wisconsin Public Radio,
KFWB Los Angeles and more than twenty other radio broadcasts aross the U.S.
and Canada.  For most of Tuesday and Wednesday CSICOP's five office phone
lines were ringing non-stop with interview requests and dozens of inquiries
from radio listeners about SKEPTICAL INQUIRER subscriptions.

 Meanwhile, prompted by the recent Therapeutic Touch(TT) study released by the
Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (Prometheus Books), CSICOP was
contacted by CBS Eye to Eye with Bryant Gumbel to aid in a segment on TT.
CSICOP refered CBS to NYC-based biochemist and researcher Saul Green, Science
Editor for SRAM, and provided CBS with extensive background materials.

 CSICOP first brought the world's attention to the claims of TT back in the
Winter 1993 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.   Follow-up reports appeared in the
Spring 1993 and July/August 1996 issues.  (To order back issues or articles of
SI, call 1800-634-1610.) Much of the recent widespread criticism of
therapeutic touch takes root in the original work and research done by CSICOP
fellows Vern Bullough and Bela Scheiber.

 Media inquiries on a wide range of topics keep pouring into the CSICOP
offices.  Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell was recently named special
paranormal consultant to the BBC as he collaborates on two upcoming
documentaries involving the topics of the Shroud of Turin and Levitation.

 Nickell has been a busy man as of late.  Last week he traveled to the state
of Washington to address the Northwest Association of Physics Teachers and
Professors. Also speaking at the event was CSICOP fellow Ray Hyman. On April
1st, Nickell gave a much publicized speech at Bristol Community College in
Connecticut and will address the MIT Alumni Association on Monday, April 5 in
Boston.

 CSICOP continues to be a major resource for top international news
publications.  On Sunday March 29, an article by Robert Baker was cited in a
Washington Post article on paranormal radio host Art Bell.  The February issue
of DISCOVER magazine called on Nickell and CSICOP consultant Michael Dennett
for a story on Champ, the Lake Champlain Monster.  While this week, a science
magazine from Norway arrived in our offices that featured Joe Nickell's now
famous Alien Timeline.  The Timeline has appeared on ABC's 20/20 and as far
away as magazines in Brazil!

 Feedback from the media continues to be very positive.  Reporters, editors,
and producers make use of CSICOP's network of scientific experts and leading
researchers to gain critical analysis of the latest claims of pseudoscience
and the paranormal.  The media also relies heavily on the in-depth, cutting-
edge features and articles found exclusively in current and past issues of
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER magazine.

 Nobel laureate Leon Lederman said it best when he commented " I know junk
science when I see it.  So do you.  But it takes CSICOP to provide the data,
the anecdotes, the information that helps us all to respond to the barrage of
unbelievable garbage that regularly assails us."