RSLancastr
www.StopSylvia.com
That's right, TAM 5 (2007).
I have been emailing someone I recently met online, about some of my skeptical experiences.
As part of that, I put together the following looong report of what happened to me at TAM 5.
I created a thread here about my TAM 5 experiences many years back, but cannot find it, so I thought I would post this here, for those who never saw the old one:
===========================================
==========[ TAM5 - January, 2007 ]==========
As exciting as TAM4 had been for me, it was also pretty nerve-wracking.
I had spent much of my time there worrying about my Paper presentation on Kaz, and so had not been able to relax and enjoy everything.
As TAM5 loomed, I was looking forward to it: I figured that since I was NOT presenting a paper this time, I would be able to just relax and enjoy TAM as a spectator.
Little did I know...
A week or so before TAM5, I received an email at my StopSylvia site which simply read "They found Shawn Hornbeck".
Clueless, I replied "Thanks, but...who is Shawn Hornbeck?"
A reply came back saying "Turn on your television".
I dutifully turned on my television and, sure enough, just about every channel was showing footage of Shawn Hornbeck, a ten-year-old boy who had been found alive after having been missing for nearly five years.
Still fairly clueless, I sent another email to that correspondent, saying "Well, now I know who he is, but...why did you write to me about him being found?"
A reply came back, saying "I'm sorry, I thought you knew: his parents were on the Montel Williams Show a couple of years ago, and Sylvia Browne told them that Shawn was dead."
Smelling a great story for the site, I searched the web and found some newspaper accounts of their appearance on that show, and hastily wrote an article around them and put it up on the site - on the same day that Shawn had been found. I figured it would be just One More Article on the site, and no big deal.
Little did I know...
A day or two later, I drove from LA to Las Vegas to attend TAM5.
I woke up in my hotel room the first morning of TAM, and wanted to check my StopSylvia email first thing, like I did most every morning back home.
I did not own a laptop at that time, so I went down to the lobby, where I had seen a kiosk where you could buy time on a PC on a per-minute basis.
When I logged into my email at the kiosk, I was surprised to see DOZENS of new emails, when there were usually only three or four each morning, tops. I started reading through them, and they were ALL about the Shawn Hornbeck article.
One of them was a request for an Interview about Browne and the Hornbeck case, from a producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Show! Another was from a journalist with a New York newspaper (the Post? I'm not sure), wanting to do a phone interview of me for an article on Browne to appear the next day - holy cow!
I replied to both, saying that I would have to get back to them, and giving them my cell number. I started walking around the lobby, looking for someone to share this news with, when I saw Randi himself, standing by the elevators, examining a poster on the wall.
I walked up to him, introduced myself (not certain he would remember and recognize me from TAM4), and gave him a quick rundown of the Browne/Hornbeck situation, ending with the requests for interviews I had just received.
I asked him if he had any advice for me regarding the interviews, as I had never done a press interview before.
He invited me to join him for breakfast in the hotel's cafe, where we could talk about the interviews. I gratefully accepted, even though I had already eaten (how could I pass up Breakfast With James Randi?)
We strolled over to the cafe, where we sat at a table with Hal Bidlack (TAM Master of Ceremonies) and Elaine Gilman (who had recently founded the Denver Skeptics group).
We ordered our breakfast and started talking about the Browne/Hornbeck news.
My cell phone rang just as our food arrived.
It was the NY Post reporter, wanting to interview me RIGHT THEN, as she was on a tight deadline if her article was to be in the next day's edition.
So I did the interview right there, while Randi, Hal and Elaine listened to my side of it.
I remember thinking at one point "Hold on a second: I'm eating breakfast with JAMES RANDI, being interviewed about SYLVIA BROWNE by a reporter for THE NEW YORK POST... WHAT UNIVERSE DID I WAKE UP IN THIS MORNING?!"
After answering a few of the reporter's questions, I gestured as though offering to hand the phone over to Randi, knowing that he was FAR better equipped/qualified to talk to the press about "psychics" than I was, but he shook his head "no" and said "you're doing just fine - besides, this is YOUR baby!"
I checked my email in the kiosk again after breakfast and found even MORE StopSylvia email, including a request for an interview on The O'Reilly Factor - Yikes!
I called them to discuss doing an interview. I told them that I would be glad to do it, but that they might do better to interview James Randi. The producer I was talking with said "we'd like to interview you BOTH. We had already scheduled one with James Randi, and now we have to reschedule it, but we can't get ahold of him. Do you know where he is?" I looked to my left and said "Yes, he is standing about ten feet away from me at the moment. We are here at the convention for his foundation." She asked me to tell Randi's "people" that his interview was to be rescheduled, and I told her that I would.
I hung up and went and found Randi's "people" at the TAM registration booth, and told them. They were none-too-happy, having already moved around a ton of his appointments to make room for the O'Reilly interview - and now it was being rescheduled?!
I went back up to my room. I was going to call my wife (still my girlfriend at the time) and tell her about my crazy day, but my phone rang. I did not recognize the number, but answered it anyway, figuring it might be a producer for one of the shows.
When I said "hello", a man's voice that I did not recognize said "hello, Bob?"
Few people had called me Bob since my divorce (long story), so I said "This is Robert Lancaster."
The man on the other end started talking about the fact that our O'Reilly interview was being rescheduled.
It took a moment or two before I realized - it was James Randi, calling me, of all people!
After I got off the phone with Randi, I let myself fall backward onto the bed, thinking "I'M STILL IN THAT ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!"
I checked my email in the lobby the next morning, and found an email from the Post journalist saying that the article had appeared in that morning's edition (I think that the headline was "She Said Boy Was Dead"). There was also an email saying that Dennis Praeger (I think it was) had mentioned my web site on HIS radio show, and that Howard Stern had read the entire Post article to his listeners on that morning's show, praising my site and criticizing Sylvia Browne. There was also an email from the producer of the Anderson Cooper 360 show, asking me to phone her about the interview.
At some point in that day, I had what was probably the high point of that whole incredible week: I was walking down a hallway, past tons of TAM attendees, when suddenly James Randi approached me and motioned for me to stop. When I did, smiling, he said "Bob, Sylvia Browne is taking a lot of hits today!" I nodded, and he continued "...and it is largely to your credit!" and patted me on the back.
It was an incredible moment. As I have said before, it was as though Batman had come up to me and said "The Joker is taking some serious hits today, and it is largely to your credit!"
I thanked Randi, he replied with a "No, thank YOU!", and we continued on our separate ways.
I called the AC360 producer and, despite my telling her that I had a face more suited for a radio interview, she asked if I could be down at their satellite studio in Vegas in about an hour to film my segment.
I assured her that I would be there, and got directions to the studio.
I drove over to the "studio" (a small, industrial-looking building in a strip mall behind a gas station), where I was greeted by a cameraman who took me to a small room with black walls, a television camera, and cables strewn everywhere. He seated me, put an earpiece in my ear, fed a mic up my shirt, out the neck of the shirt, and clipped it to my collar before he went and stood behind the camera.
He checked light and sound levels, shot a few test seconds of tape, and, apparently satisfied with that, told me that a producer would be talking to me shortly through the earpiece, and that I should just relax until then.
Relax. riiiiiiight...
While waiting for the producer, the cameraman and I had a brief conversation about Sylvia Browne. He didn't see any harm in what she did, even if she was a fraud (he wasn't sure if she was or not).
By the time the producer started talking to me via the earpiece, I had given the cameraman some food for thought.
The producer spoke with me briefly about the interview process, telling me that she would be reading me a series of prepared questions, and they would videotape my answers. Anderson would later choose which of my answers fit into the segment, and they would be edited in. She stressed that probably very little of my interview would end up in the broadcast, and I told her that I understood.
(A side note: At this time, I had had no cable TV in a few years, and had never even heard of Anderson Cooper. When I had read the request for the interview, I had assumed that the show was cohosted by two people - Anderson and Cooper (like the old Huntley/Brinkley Report). It wasn't until I actually saw the episode that I figured it out).
Back to the interview: She (the producer) told me to pick out a spot on the wall to the camera's right, and to focus on it during the interview as though it was the interviewer's face.
I picked a spot, they approved the angle, and the interview began.
It was a series of pretty general questions, such as "why is what Sylvia Browne does WRONG?"
Here is a transcript of the episode: (scroll down to find the segment on Browne)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/19/acd.01.html
-And here is a YouTube of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9hki5Nlyo
I don't think I was on screen for more than 15 seconds total, but Randi got quite a bit of screen time in the segment after mine.
We must have taped 15-20 minutes of questions and answers, and we were done. They told me that the episode would, they hoped, air later that week.. I thanked them, left the studio, got into my car and headed back to the hotel.
As soon as I walked into the lobby, Hal buttonholed me and asked how I thought the interview had gone. I told him that I THOUGHT that it had gone well, but we would have to wait and see. He then said "there is someone here who would like to meet you" and, taking me by the arm, guided me down a series of crowded hallways.
As we rounded one corner, I saw at the end of the hallway - his head and shoulders above the heads of all of the people between us - Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller.
As we approached Penn, Hal said "Penn, this is Robert Lancaster."
Penn smiled down at me (man, is he tall!), stuck out a massive paw in greeting and, as I shook it, he said "Hi, my name is Penn. I have a radio show. Would you like to be on it?"
His show, Penn Radio, was very popular with skeptics at the time. I knew he hated psychics, so I figured it would be a good interview. Nodding, I said "When?"
Making a show of checking his watch, he said "What about...NOW!? We have the recording equipment set up in Randi's room on the top floor, and have been taping interviews of TAM folks there.
"Sure, why not?" I replied, as though this was something I did every day.
And, with that, we headed to the elevators. On the way, Penn found his co-host, Michael Goudeau, who came along with us.
Penn pressed the button to summon the elevator. While we waited for it to arrive, he introduced me to Goudeau, and then asked me "So, do you think you can talk for an hour about her?"
I shrugged my shoulders and replied "well, I guess we're about to find out!" Worried about saying something that would give Browne ammunition for a libel suit, I added "I'm just not sure what I can and cannot say."
Penn evidently mistook my meaning, because as we entered the elevator, he looked down at me, his head nearly bumping the ceiling of the elevator, and offered me the advice "Don't say '****'".
Goudeau and I laughed, and then I said "well then, I guess 'fraudulent ****' is right out."
They both laughed, and then Goudeau said "Actually, part of my job is to write down the time whenever Penn says '****' so that it can be edited out later, so - feel free!"
With that settled, we arrived at our floor. The elevator doors opened, and we walked down the hallway to Randi's room. Penn unlocked it, and we walked inside.
Penn introduced me to the two sound guys who had been waiting for us, and they seated Penn, Goudeau and me in chairs around a round, glass-topped table by a window overlooking the Strip. We put on headphones, did a brief sound level check, and Penn asked me if I was ready.
I said that I was, and he cued the soung guys to begin the show.
The show's theme song started playing through our headphones. I settled into my chair and tried to relax (riiiiiiight).
On a cue from one of the sound guys, Penn introduced the topic and me, and we were off and running!
The next hour was both exhillerating and scary: trying to keep up with Penn and Goudeau, come up with meaningful answers to the questions...
I *think* I did okay, but you can judge for yourself - Here is a recording of the show:
http://www.pennfans.net/radio_show_archive/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2007.02.12.mp3
Later that day, it was confirmed that the AC360 episode about Sylvia Browne was going to be broadcast the final evening of TAM. The JREF staff arranged it with the hotel so that the episode would be shown to the assembled TAM crowd on the projection screen onstage in the grand ballroom.
I have not mentioned yet the fact that during that whole week, all of this - the NY Post article, the news of the AC360 appearance, the O'Reilly Factor appearance (which never happened by the way - I think they decided that the Hornbeck story was no longer "hot" by that point), the Penn Radio interview and all - all of TAM was abuzz about it all. Everywhere I went in the hotel that week, TAM attendees were coming up to me, congratulating me on it all, and telling me that the AC360 people were going to "ambush" me, or were going to edit my interview so as to make Sylvia Browne look sympathetic. I told them not to worry. It seemed pretty clear that, for once, the media were on the side of the skeptics. Her heartlessly telling Shawn Hornbeck's parents that he was dead, combined with the HUGE story that his being found alive, combined to make the "perfect storm" of outrage towards Browne, and I didn't think the media were going to be on the "psychic side" this time.
I believe that it was on the last night of TAM 5 that the Anderson Cooper 360 episode about Sylvia Browne was broadcast. An announcement was made at TAM that the JREF had arranged with the hotel staff that the episode be shown on the large projection screen of the hotel's ballroom as it was being broadcast.
So it was that I sat in that ballroom with the several hundred TAM attendees who decided to stay late to see the episode, watching the episode on a screen about the size of that in a small movie theater.
The crowd cheered when it started with a picture of Sylvia Browne shown over the words "dead wrong", as they did when Cooper referred to Browne as a "self-proclaimed psychic" and "alleged psychic", and when either Randi or I were on screen, and they hissed and booed when Browne was shown.
Here are YouTube clips of the segments:
Part 1 (with snippets of me):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKX5yB-H2tI
Part 2 (with Randi):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuPadpaTwKY
As I had hoped, the show came down, quite strongly, on the side of skepticism - something which happens all-too-seldom. (Shows often will give over an entire half hour or hour showing footage of supposedly paranormal events, and then give a "token skeptic" a few moments at the close of the show to explain it all, putting the skeptic the role of the party pooper, the fly in the ointment, the one who just doesn't seem to "get it".
Not on that particular episode of AC360, and the crowd just ate it up.
It was a wonderful note on which to wrap up TAM 5.
Back then, each TAM had a theme, such as "Skepticism and Medicine".
By the end of TAM 5, it had been pointed out to me more than once how appropriate it was that the theme for TAM 5, during which I was interviewed in a newspaper, on radio and television, was "Skepticism and the Media"!
I have been emailing someone I recently met online, about some of my skeptical experiences.
As part of that, I put together the following looong report of what happened to me at TAM 5.
I created a thread here about my TAM 5 experiences many years back, but cannot find it, so I thought I would post this here, for those who never saw the old one:
===========================================
==========[ TAM5 - January, 2007 ]==========
As exciting as TAM4 had been for me, it was also pretty nerve-wracking.
I had spent much of my time there worrying about my Paper presentation on Kaz, and so had not been able to relax and enjoy everything.
As TAM5 loomed, I was looking forward to it: I figured that since I was NOT presenting a paper this time, I would be able to just relax and enjoy TAM as a spectator.
Little did I know...
A week or so before TAM5, I received an email at my StopSylvia site which simply read "They found Shawn Hornbeck".
Clueless, I replied "Thanks, but...who is Shawn Hornbeck?"
A reply came back saying "Turn on your television".
I dutifully turned on my television and, sure enough, just about every channel was showing footage of Shawn Hornbeck, a ten-year-old boy who had been found alive after having been missing for nearly five years.
Still fairly clueless, I sent another email to that correspondent, saying "Well, now I know who he is, but...why did you write to me about him being found?"
A reply came back, saying "I'm sorry, I thought you knew: his parents were on the Montel Williams Show a couple of years ago, and Sylvia Browne told them that Shawn was dead."
Smelling a great story for the site, I searched the web and found some newspaper accounts of their appearance on that show, and hastily wrote an article around them and put it up on the site - on the same day that Shawn had been found. I figured it would be just One More Article on the site, and no big deal.
Little did I know...
A day or two later, I drove from LA to Las Vegas to attend TAM5.
I woke up in my hotel room the first morning of TAM, and wanted to check my StopSylvia email first thing, like I did most every morning back home.
I did not own a laptop at that time, so I went down to the lobby, where I had seen a kiosk where you could buy time on a PC on a per-minute basis.
When I logged into my email at the kiosk, I was surprised to see DOZENS of new emails, when there were usually only three or four each morning, tops. I started reading through them, and they were ALL about the Shawn Hornbeck article.
One of them was a request for an Interview about Browne and the Hornbeck case, from a producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Show! Another was from a journalist with a New York newspaper (the Post? I'm not sure), wanting to do a phone interview of me for an article on Browne to appear the next day - holy cow!
I replied to both, saying that I would have to get back to them, and giving them my cell number. I started walking around the lobby, looking for someone to share this news with, when I saw Randi himself, standing by the elevators, examining a poster on the wall.
I walked up to him, introduced myself (not certain he would remember and recognize me from TAM4), and gave him a quick rundown of the Browne/Hornbeck situation, ending with the requests for interviews I had just received.
I asked him if he had any advice for me regarding the interviews, as I had never done a press interview before.
He invited me to join him for breakfast in the hotel's cafe, where we could talk about the interviews. I gratefully accepted, even though I had already eaten (how could I pass up Breakfast With James Randi?)
We strolled over to the cafe, where we sat at a table with Hal Bidlack (TAM Master of Ceremonies) and Elaine Gilman (who had recently founded the Denver Skeptics group).
We ordered our breakfast and started talking about the Browne/Hornbeck news.
My cell phone rang just as our food arrived.
It was the NY Post reporter, wanting to interview me RIGHT THEN, as she was on a tight deadline if her article was to be in the next day's edition.
So I did the interview right there, while Randi, Hal and Elaine listened to my side of it.
I remember thinking at one point "Hold on a second: I'm eating breakfast with JAMES RANDI, being interviewed about SYLVIA BROWNE by a reporter for THE NEW YORK POST... WHAT UNIVERSE DID I WAKE UP IN THIS MORNING?!"
After answering a few of the reporter's questions, I gestured as though offering to hand the phone over to Randi, knowing that he was FAR better equipped/qualified to talk to the press about "psychics" than I was, but he shook his head "no" and said "you're doing just fine - besides, this is YOUR baby!"
I checked my email in the kiosk again after breakfast and found even MORE StopSylvia email, including a request for an interview on The O'Reilly Factor - Yikes!
I called them to discuss doing an interview. I told them that I would be glad to do it, but that they might do better to interview James Randi. The producer I was talking with said "we'd like to interview you BOTH. We had already scheduled one with James Randi, and now we have to reschedule it, but we can't get ahold of him. Do you know where he is?" I looked to my left and said "Yes, he is standing about ten feet away from me at the moment. We are here at the convention for his foundation." She asked me to tell Randi's "people" that his interview was to be rescheduled, and I told her that I would.
I hung up and went and found Randi's "people" at the TAM registration booth, and told them. They were none-too-happy, having already moved around a ton of his appointments to make room for the O'Reilly interview - and now it was being rescheduled?!
I went back up to my room. I was going to call my wife (still my girlfriend at the time) and tell her about my crazy day, but my phone rang. I did not recognize the number, but answered it anyway, figuring it might be a producer for one of the shows.
When I said "hello", a man's voice that I did not recognize said "hello, Bob?"
Few people had called me Bob since my divorce (long story), so I said "This is Robert Lancaster."
The man on the other end started talking about the fact that our O'Reilly interview was being rescheduled.
It took a moment or two before I realized - it was James Randi, calling me, of all people!
After I got off the phone with Randi, I let myself fall backward onto the bed, thinking "I'M STILL IN THAT ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!"
I checked my email in the lobby the next morning, and found an email from the Post journalist saying that the article had appeared in that morning's edition (I think that the headline was "She Said Boy Was Dead"). There was also an email saying that Dennis Praeger (I think it was) had mentioned my web site on HIS radio show, and that Howard Stern had read the entire Post article to his listeners on that morning's show, praising my site and criticizing Sylvia Browne. There was also an email from the producer of the Anderson Cooper 360 show, asking me to phone her about the interview.
At some point in that day, I had what was probably the high point of that whole incredible week: I was walking down a hallway, past tons of TAM attendees, when suddenly James Randi approached me and motioned for me to stop. When I did, smiling, he said "Bob, Sylvia Browne is taking a lot of hits today!" I nodded, and he continued "...and it is largely to your credit!" and patted me on the back.
It was an incredible moment. As I have said before, it was as though Batman had come up to me and said "The Joker is taking some serious hits today, and it is largely to your credit!"
I thanked Randi, he replied with a "No, thank YOU!", and we continued on our separate ways.
I called the AC360 producer and, despite my telling her that I had a face more suited for a radio interview, she asked if I could be down at their satellite studio in Vegas in about an hour to film my segment.
I assured her that I would be there, and got directions to the studio.
I drove over to the "studio" (a small, industrial-looking building in a strip mall behind a gas station), where I was greeted by a cameraman who took me to a small room with black walls, a television camera, and cables strewn everywhere. He seated me, put an earpiece in my ear, fed a mic up my shirt, out the neck of the shirt, and clipped it to my collar before he went and stood behind the camera.
He checked light and sound levels, shot a few test seconds of tape, and, apparently satisfied with that, told me that a producer would be talking to me shortly through the earpiece, and that I should just relax until then.
Relax. riiiiiiight...
While waiting for the producer, the cameraman and I had a brief conversation about Sylvia Browne. He didn't see any harm in what she did, even if she was a fraud (he wasn't sure if she was or not).
By the time the producer started talking to me via the earpiece, I had given the cameraman some food for thought.
The producer spoke with me briefly about the interview process, telling me that she would be reading me a series of prepared questions, and they would videotape my answers. Anderson would later choose which of my answers fit into the segment, and they would be edited in. She stressed that probably very little of my interview would end up in the broadcast, and I told her that I understood.
(A side note: At this time, I had had no cable TV in a few years, and had never even heard of Anderson Cooper. When I had read the request for the interview, I had assumed that the show was cohosted by two people - Anderson and Cooper (like the old Huntley/Brinkley Report). It wasn't until I actually saw the episode that I figured it out).
Back to the interview: She (the producer) told me to pick out a spot on the wall to the camera's right, and to focus on it during the interview as though it was the interviewer's face.
I picked a spot, they approved the angle, and the interview began.
It was a series of pretty general questions, such as "why is what Sylvia Browne does WRONG?"
Here is a transcript of the episode: (scroll down to find the segment on Browne)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/19/acd.01.html
-And here is a YouTube of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9hki5Nlyo
I don't think I was on screen for more than 15 seconds total, but Randi got quite a bit of screen time in the segment after mine.
We must have taped 15-20 minutes of questions and answers, and we were done. They told me that the episode would, they hoped, air later that week.. I thanked them, left the studio, got into my car and headed back to the hotel.
As soon as I walked into the lobby, Hal buttonholed me and asked how I thought the interview had gone. I told him that I THOUGHT that it had gone well, but we would have to wait and see. He then said "there is someone here who would like to meet you" and, taking me by the arm, guided me down a series of crowded hallways.
As we rounded one corner, I saw at the end of the hallway - his head and shoulders above the heads of all of the people between us - Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller.
As we approached Penn, Hal said "Penn, this is Robert Lancaster."
Penn smiled down at me (man, is he tall!), stuck out a massive paw in greeting and, as I shook it, he said "Hi, my name is Penn. I have a radio show. Would you like to be on it?"
His show, Penn Radio, was very popular with skeptics at the time. I knew he hated psychics, so I figured it would be a good interview. Nodding, I said "When?"
Making a show of checking his watch, he said "What about...NOW!? We have the recording equipment set up in Randi's room on the top floor, and have been taping interviews of TAM folks there.
"Sure, why not?" I replied, as though this was something I did every day.
And, with that, we headed to the elevators. On the way, Penn found his co-host, Michael Goudeau, who came along with us.
Penn pressed the button to summon the elevator. While we waited for it to arrive, he introduced me to Goudeau, and then asked me "So, do you think you can talk for an hour about her?"
I shrugged my shoulders and replied "well, I guess we're about to find out!" Worried about saying something that would give Browne ammunition for a libel suit, I added "I'm just not sure what I can and cannot say."
Penn evidently mistook my meaning, because as we entered the elevator, he looked down at me, his head nearly bumping the ceiling of the elevator, and offered me the advice "Don't say '****'".
Goudeau and I laughed, and then I said "well then, I guess 'fraudulent ****' is right out."
They both laughed, and then Goudeau said "Actually, part of my job is to write down the time whenever Penn says '****' so that it can be edited out later, so - feel free!"
With that settled, we arrived at our floor. The elevator doors opened, and we walked down the hallway to Randi's room. Penn unlocked it, and we walked inside.
Penn introduced me to the two sound guys who had been waiting for us, and they seated Penn, Goudeau and me in chairs around a round, glass-topped table by a window overlooking the Strip. We put on headphones, did a brief sound level check, and Penn asked me if I was ready.
I said that I was, and he cued the soung guys to begin the show.
The show's theme song started playing through our headphones. I settled into my chair and tried to relax (riiiiiiight).
On a cue from one of the sound guys, Penn introduced the topic and me, and we were off and running!
The next hour was both exhillerating and scary: trying to keep up with Penn and Goudeau, come up with meaningful answers to the questions...
I *think* I did okay, but you can judge for yourself - Here is a recording of the show:
http://www.pennfans.net/radio_show_archive/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2007.02.12.mp3
Later that day, it was confirmed that the AC360 episode about Sylvia Browne was going to be broadcast the final evening of TAM. The JREF staff arranged it with the hotel so that the episode would be shown to the assembled TAM crowd on the projection screen onstage in the grand ballroom.
I have not mentioned yet the fact that during that whole week, all of this - the NY Post article, the news of the AC360 appearance, the O'Reilly Factor appearance (which never happened by the way - I think they decided that the Hornbeck story was no longer "hot" by that point), the Penn Radio interview and all - all of TAM was abuzz about it all. Everywhere I went in the hotel that week, TAM attendees were coming up to me, congratulating me on it all, and telling me that the AC360 people were going to "ambush" me, or were going to edit my interview so as to make Sylvia Browne look sympathetic. I told them not to worry. It seemed pretty clear that, for once, the media were on the side of the skeptics. Her heartlessly telling Shawn Hornbeck's parents that he was dead, combined with the HUGE story that his being found alive, combined to make the "perfect storm" of outrage towards Browne, and I didn't think the media were going to be on the "psychic side" this time.
I believe that it was on the last night of TAM 5 that the Anderson Cooper 360 episode about Sylvia Browne was broadcast. An announcement was made at TAM that the JREF had arranged with the hotel staff that the episode be shown on the large projection screen of the hotel's ballroom as it was being broadcast.
So it was that I sat in that ballroom with the several hundred TAM attendees who decided to stay late to see the episode, watching the episode on a screen about the size of that in a small movie theater.
The crowd cheered when it started with a picture of Sylvia Browne shown over the words "dead wrong", as they did when Cooper referred to Browne as a "self-proclaimed psychic" and "alleged psychic", and when either Randi or I were on screen, and they hissed and booed when Browne was shown.
Here are YouTube clips of the segments:
Part 1 (with snippets of me):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKX5yB-H2tI
Part 2 (with Randi):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuPadpaTwKY
As I had hoped, the show came down, quite strongly, on the side of skepticism - something which happens all-too-seldom. (Shows often will give over an entire half hour or hour showing footage of supposedly paranormal events, and then give a "token skeptic" a few moments at the close of the show to explain it all, putting the skeptic the role of the party pooper, the fly in the ointment, the one who just doesn't seem to "get it".
Not on that particular episode of AC360, and the crowd just ate it up.
It was a wonderful note on which to wrap up TAM 5.
Back then, each TAM had a theme, such as "Skepticism and Medicine".
By the end of TAM 5, it had been pointed out to me more than once how appropriate it was that the theme for TAM 5, during which I was interviewed in a newspaper, on radio and television, was "Skepticism and the Media"!
