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Fox News supports Psychics

Starthinker

Philosopher
Starthinker
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
5,011
I was just watching Fox news and there was a story about a missing teacher in Mississippi (I think) and the newswoman was saying how searchers are on feet, ATVs, horseback, and, quote, "Even psychics and cadaver dogs are turning up nothing."

She said so calmly that it just put me off my day. To see a news channel listing psychics on par with cadaver dogs as a legitimate search technique is not journalism, it's just the opposite--fiction.

Fox news should be embarrassed by this.
 
Starthinker said:
Fox news should be embarrassed by this.
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If I remember correctly, this would rank 354,758th after, "Claiming a llama was too liberal." on the list of the top 1,000,000 things Fox News should be embarrassed or ashamed about.
 
Fox News survives, at least in part, on advertising. Advertising is aimed at the lowest common denominator in any particular demographic. Psychics are accepted without question by the unwashed masses so Fox has no problem including them in it's news. It makes the masses comfortable, they watch Fox News, they get more advertising, everyone is happy. Excepting, of course, those tedious individuals who require nonsense like evidence for these sorts of things.

Easy!
 
The Cadaver Dogs have a proven track record, and one was recently in the news as finding his 95th corpse in Finland in the middle of fall underwater when sonar and underwater cameras could not find the body.

A news organization should at least rank their sources accordingly. "Of course psychics turned up nothing, but then searchers and finally cadaver dogs were also unable to find a body."
 
PatKelley said:
A news organization should at least rank their sources accordingly. "Of course psychics turned up nothing, but then searchers and finally cadaver dogs were also unable to find a body."
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I can see where the problem lies here. You guys seem to be suffering under the misaprehension that TV news is there to inform you. It may help your understanding if you realise that it is primarily entertainment.
 
Fox News generally makes me froth at the mouth and want to start beating Psycho Conservatives with a really big stick.
 
Starthinker said:
I was just watching Fox news and there was a story about a missing teacher in Mississippi (I think) and the newswoman was saying how searchers are on feet, ATVs, horseback, and, quote, "Even psychics and cadaver dogs are turning up nothing."

She said so calmly that it just put me off my day. To see a news channel listing psychics on par with cadaver dogs as a legitimate search technique is not journalism, it's just the opposite--fiction.

Fox news should be embarrassed by this.
Click to expand...

What kind of scientist are you? Do you have conclusive proof that psychics...not a one of them...has any ability? How do YOU know?

Do you know that I saw a tv show where a sheriiff (yes, they actually stated his city and his name, and yes, it was in the United States and not Britain!) that they used a psychic to find a body that in no way could have this been chance, the sheriff said. It was on a cold case murder from 1985...and the psychic solved it and took them to this pond? where they found the body.
 
AnotherSillyAlias said:
Fox News survives, at least in part, on advertising. Advertising is aimed at the lowest common denominator in any particular demographic. Psychics are accepted without question by the unwashed masses so Fox has no problem including them in it's news. It makes the masses comfortable, they watch Fox News, they get more advertising, everyone is happy. Excepting, of course, those tedious individuals who require nonsense like evidence for these sorts of things.

Easy!
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You believe in YOUR conspiracy theory, as long as you let me believe in Kevin Trudeau. :)
 
What kind of scientist are you? Do you have conclusive proof that psychics...not a one of them...has any ability? How do YOU know?
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The fact that they fail miserably to demonstrate them?
 
Iamme said:
What kind of scientist are you? Do you have conclusive proof that psychics...not a one of them...has any ability? How do YOU know?

Do you know that I saw a tv show where a sheriiff (yes, they actually stated his city and his name, and yes, it was in the United States and not Britain!) that they used a psychic to find a body that in no way could have this been chance, the sheriff said. It was on a cold case murder from 1985...and the psychic solved it and took them to this pond? where they found the body.
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So, the proof is one got lucky? The problem is, picking random persons to assist would be no better, given that one of them might get lucky as well.

The test is repeatability, and with the Cadaver Dog at 95 for one dog and psychics at 1 for countless thousands...
 
PatKelley said:
So, the proof is one got lucky? The problem is, picking random persons to assist would be no better, given that one of them might get lucky as well.

The test is repeatability, and with the Cadaver Dog at 95 for one dog and psychics at 1 for countless thousands...
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I am not sure whether a psychic volunteered their services or if it was a matter of fact that the sheriffs dept. hired the person based on known reputation.

I guess one would have to look into this by asking google something like "psychic solves cold case murder", or something like that, and delve into whether or not there are psychics out there that have been known to be able to find bodies, over and over again.

There is one other possibility also. Psychic ability and the word intuitive are often intertwined. Maybe a good psychic is more highly intuitive when given the basic facts of a case, compared with a stupid sheriffs dept.,let's just say... in a town like Kawatchi (made up), Pennsylvania, or somewheres.
 
Iamme said:
Suppose 19 out of 20 fail, but the 20th one doesn't. What do you think then?
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If the test was done correctly, that the 20th, under the test conditions, was able to do something considered statistically unlikely. Since this has never happened, what's your point?
 
Iamme said:
I am not sure whether a psychic volunteered their services or if it was a matter of fact that the sheriffs dept. hired the person based on known reputation.

I guess one would have to look into this by asking google something like "psychic solves cold case murder", or something like that, and delve into whether or not there are psychics out there that have been known to be able to find bodies, over and over again.

There is one other possibility also. Psychic ability and the word intuitive are often intertwined. Maybe a good psychic is more highly intuitive when given the basic facts of a case, compared with a stupid sheriffs dept.,let's just say... in a town like Kawatchi (made up), Pennsylvania, or somewheres.
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Compared with a "stupid sheriffs dept?"
Well, consider that there are thousands of psychics. Consider only the thirteen listed in open directory who specialize in being psychic detectives.

First on the list was reviewed on 48 hours, and didn't really do any better than guessing, hilighting two cases out of what has been a long career, with such insightful hints as "he's wearing white." Consider the cadaver dog is all of six years old, and has 95 to his credit alone, and consider many men wear white underwear or socks.

Number two, again, apparently does cold reading.

And the list goes on... the rest are too unknown to really have any observed case history beyond their own claims.

Consider the 95-Cadaver Cadaver-Dog does not have a publicist or website.

Now, how much publicity, or work even, would a cadaver dog get that was right one time out of twenty... or even one time in ten...
 
Starthinker- On what evidence do you describe Fox News as a "News Channel"?
 
Iamme said:
What kind of scientist are you? Do you have conclusive proof that psychics...not a one of them...has any ability? How do YOU know?
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Fallacy: Shifting burden of proof.
Fallacy: Straw man: We don't KNOW anything. We're merely confident from viewing long, long, strings of failures.

Do you know that I saw a tv show where a sheriiff (yes, they actually stated his city and his name, and yes, it was in the United States and not Britain!) that they used a psychic to find a body that in no way could have this been chance, the sheriff said. It was on a cold case murder from 1985...and the psychic solved it and took them to this pond? where they found the body.
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Police records, please?
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was Fox News. I know the reputation Fox has but it still set the civilization back a few years.

I also know there are only two kinds of psychics. 1) Those who are deluding themselves to think they have powers. 2) Those who know they don't have powers and are deluding everyone else into thinking they do have powers.

What kind of scientist are you? Do you have conclusive proof that psychics...not a one of them...has any ability? How do YOU know?
Click to expand...

I know if there really were psychics they would take Randi's test. The only proof I have is that none have shown any proof, at all.
 
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