Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

• Media Coverage After the Attack:
  Reason and Deliberative Democracy Put to the Test
  How well have the media covered the September 11 attack? Over the past decade, have the American news media, especially television news, fundamentally failed the American public by not providing essential coverage of world affairs? How can a citizen be both skeptical and informed in the coming months if history suggests mainstream media coverage is likely to turn increasingly hegemonic and sensationalistic?

• Caught in the Ag Biotech Crossfire:
  How U.S. Universities Can Engage the Public About Scientific Controversy
  Though current public attitudes in the U.S. may still stray towards the ambivalent, agricultural biotechnology is likely to be one of the most prominent technological and scientific developments of the next decade. Widespread claims of the technology's brightest benefits will be increasingly countered by allegations regarding GM agriculture's darkest perils. Universities and their scientists will be at the center of this debate, both as developers of new applications, but also as those chiefly responsible for engaging the public and policymakers regarding biotechnology's ethical, social, and legal implications.

• That's Infotainment!
  How Soft Journalism -- that Offers Sensationalism, Celebrity, Crime & the Paranormal as News -- Undermines the Credibility of Major Media Organizations, Drives Away Their Core Audiences, and Hurts Democracy

• Talking to Heaven Through Television:
  How the Mass Media Package and Sell Psychic Medium John Edward
  When psychic medium John Edward appeared March 6 on CNN's Larry King Live, viewers deserved a balanced treatment of his claims, especially considering that the Larry King Live guest panel included two skeptics and a rabbi critic. Instead, quantitative and qualitative analysis of the program's transcript indicates that King and his producers offered viewers a carefully controlled and framed promotion of psychic ability.

• A Look Back at the Best Skeptic Book of 2000
  Voodoo Science Conjures a Celebrity Out of a Scientist
  In a publishing year dominated by Harry Potter fantasy yarns and self-help books, Generation SXeptic looks back at the reaction to Voodoo Science, physicist Robert Park's witty and entertaining account of his battles with baloney and bogus science.

• The Physics Instructor Who Walks on Fire
  David Willey is a science educator who is hot to trot on fiery coals, and who is bringing death-defying science demonstrations to national and international audiences. Generation SXeptic caught up with Willey on a recent firewalk in Buffalo, New York. We wanted to find out what in the name of science would motivate a man to walk on fire, stride across broken glass, sink his hand in molten lead, and pick up orange-hot space tiles with his bare hands.

• Introducing Italy's Version of Harry Houdini
  At the age of 31, Italian magician and paranormal investigator Massimo Polidoro is the author of a half-a-dozen books, performs and lectures to standing-room-only crowds across the globe, runs a national organization of Italian skeptics, and is a hit with the Italian media. A life that may seem very complex to most is very simple to Polidoro: he is merely leading a life inspired by his boyhood hero Harry Houdini.

• The Best Case for ESP?
  Prominent Cornell University psychologist Daryl Bem believes that ganzfeld experiments have provided evidence in support of the elusive psi. Fellow psychologist Ray Hyman disagrees. Is Bem's research a step towards major discovery, or another prominent finding in the history of parapsychology never to be replicated nor confirmed? The answer, in part, is a matter of scientific and worldview.

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