TV Skeptic: 'Mermaids: The Body Found' clouds the waters

"Mermaids: The Body Found," which aired over the weekend as part of Animal Planet's "Monster Week," revealed a true TV abomination. An unnatural hybrid that was as disturbing as it was gruesome. A freak whose very existence threatens us all. 

I don't mean the creature featured in this new TV special. It's the TV show itself.

"Mermaids," which will air again June 17, is fiction. It's a fake TV documentary. You may have to look hard to see the disclaimer, but the producers and Animal Planet make it clear that this program is totally and completely made up.

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At least they almost make it clear. They don't exactly make a distinction between what is real and what is faked, and they really don't seem to care.

As a fake documentary, one might hope that "Mermaids" would follow in the tradition of some of the great "mockumentaries" of film and television. ("This is Spinal Tap"; "Zelig"; "The Rutles" and numerous "Monty Python" skits).

But "Mermaids" doesn't mock anything. Instead, the joke is on us.

The slick program uses a documentary style to tell a fictional crypto-zoological tale of earnest, young and attractive scientists who are investigating whale and dolphin beachings. In so doing, they discover clues of the existence of an intelligent primate species — related to humans — that has evolved to adapt to an aquatic life, just as dolphin and whale ancestors did millions of years ago.

TV Skeptic: 'Weight of the Nation' is light on balance about obesity

To me, there is an 800-pound gorilla looming in the background of "The Weight of the Nation," the four-part documentary that began on Monday and concludes Tuesday on HBO. It's a menacing presence that may be hard to spot among so many 300-, 400- and 500-pound Americans on screen, but I know it's there because not so long ago I was obese.

The unseen presence, I believe, is the role that insulin plays in storing body fat. In my case, tackling that beast led to dramatic weight loss and greatly improved health and fitness.

I started learning about the relationship between insulin and fat nearly three years ago when a loved one was diagnosed with a tumor on the pituitary gland that could cause Cushing syndrome, which is characterized by a rapid progression to obesity. When our family first got this diagnosis I frantically researched the condition and learned that this tumor can start a series of responses in the body’s endocrine system resulting in high levels of insulin, which causes excess fat storage.

Whenever insulin levels in the blood rise, the body stores fat. In most people insulin rises after a meal, and rises higher after meals with a high carbohydrate content, especially simple carbs like sugar, pasta or white flour.

There is debate among scientists, researchers, physicians, nutritionists and other diet experts over just what causes obesity. One side argues it's a simple matter of energy balance: "calories in vs. calories out." The claim is that the first law of thermodynamics requires that any calories that enter the system must either be metabolized, expelled or stored, and the obesity epidemic is the result of excess calories and too little exercise.

TV Skeptic: A 'balanced' discussion of UFOs on 'Anderson'

Anderson Cooper asked the question "Are we being visited by aliens from space?" and devoted Tuesday's episode of his syndicated series "Anderson" to answer that question.

His guests included a woman who claimed she saw a UFO sprinkle glitter on a tree in her yard; two women who say they saw UFOs one night, and believe that hypnosis helped them recall interactions with aliens; a member of The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), an organization dedicated to studying and publicizing UFO sightings, who barked out UFO incidents and statistics with an angry zeal; and a self-proclaimed psychic medium who said she had the ability to telepathically communicate with aliens.

She further claimed that Cooper himself had a star-family (don't we all?) living in the fourth dimension. Apparently his star-family likes to talk a lot too.

To balance these extraordinary claims — made with no convincing evidence — Cooper invited Joe Nickell, a well-respected skeptic, to join the panel. Though outnumbered, and facing the perpetual scowl of one of the UFO witnesses, Nickell did a fine job offering a coherent, yet sympathetic, response to as many of the claims as time allowed. (Although his conclusion that one witness was mistaking Jupiter for a UFO seemed hasty.)

Perhaps the best measure of Nickell's effectiveness was shown when Cooper polled the studio audience. Only a few hands were raised when asked how many believed that UFOs were alien visitors, and all but a few hands went up when asked how many didn't believe. Mark that one for the skeptics. It seems that Cooper's audience is on the ball.

Then Cooper asked how many believed that his final guest could telepathically communicate with aliens. A single hand was raised.

So, given that an "overwhelming majority" in the audience didn't believe in alien visitations; and even more of the audience (well above 99%) disbelieved in psychic communication with aliens, to whom do you think Cooper handed the microphone and its national television platform? The one audience member who believes in psychic communication with aliens, of course. 

That's what they call "balanced" on television.

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— Ed Stockly

Photo: Anderson Cooper. Credit: andersoncooper.com

'Zombies' challenge James Van Praagh to speak to the dead

At an event in Laguna Beach last Wednesday, self-described psychic (and "Ghost Whisperer" co-executive producer) James Van Praagh refused to talk to the dead. Or was it the un-dead? Actually it was volunteer activists from the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) made up as zombies who were asked to leave a $100 per person seminar conducted by Van Praagh. 

"He's taking advantage of the bereaved," said D.J. Grothe, who led the ragged horde of sign carrying living dead, "he's not helping them overcome their loss but he's getting them stuck in their grief."

The JREF has issued a million dollar challenge to Van Praagh to prove he communicates with the dead, Grothie said, but Van Praagh hasn't responded.

The activists left the event quietly after a brief encounter with a security guard. If only real zombies were so complacent.

 

 -- Ed Stockly

Photo: Thomas Donnelly; Credit: Eduard Pastor / JREF

TV Skeptic: 'Nightline' moves beyond credibility

One of the defining moments in television journalism occurred in November 1979, just days after Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Iran. ABC launched a nightly half-hour national news program that aired at 11:30 p.m. to cover the crisis. Hosted by Ted Koppel, the program later became known as "Nightline," and featured a new format that covered topics in-depth and intelligently.

But, oh, how the mighty have fallen. Koppel has long since left the network, and this once serious news program has adopted a breezy, lighter, magazine format. On Wednesday, ABC launched a new edition,"Nightline Primetime: Beyond Belief," that promises to explore different paranormal phenomena. In the premiere, host Juju Chang tackles the "Psychic Twins" and the notion that identical twins are able to communicate telepathically. 

This is what happens when news divisions get taken over by entertainment. The journalistic standards go right out the window.

The production has a very Jekyll and Hyde feel to it. At times, they use the creepy music and cheesy special effects -- at others, it reverts to a more formal news magazine format. Chang herself reels between insisting that even the shakiest evidence provides proof of a psychic connection and then mocking the very idea -- sometimes within the same sentence.

As for the "evidence" presented, most of it is unreliable and undocumented anecdotes based on incidents that occurred years ago.

The attempt at "scientific" study of the phenomena is laughable. Seriously LOL laughable. Each pair of identical twins studied are separated for an experiment. One gets hooked up to a polygraph, while their twin, in a separate room, gets startled with sudden loud noises, over and over again as the researcher checks the isolated twin's polygraphs for any sign of a reaction.

Then the twins trade positions and the process repeats. While this makes for amusing TV, it is not science. There is no blinding in the experiment to remove bias; there is no control; the standards for the results are never made clear, and, as Chang explains, the results can not be repeated.

Still, Chang remains entirely credulous throughout. And she has got that wide-eyed look of wonderment -- with the mouth slightly agape and the eyebrows arched -- down pat.

The show hits a low point with Terry and Linda Jamison. They promote themselves as "the Psychic Twins" and say their paranormal powers include predicting the future. They claim to have foreseen the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, and we are treated to a snippet of audio where they seem to prophesize the attacks occurring in 2002.  

It seems the Psychic Twins take a shotgun approach to prophecy. In a 1999 radio appearance, they made more than three dozen predictions including many natural disasters in 2000; a cure for AIDS in 2002; a cure for cancer in 2007; a drug that prevents breast cancer in 2003; the ability to clone body parts 'in the not too distant future'; advances in spinal cord injury treatment that would allow Christopher Reeve to walk, with assistance; Quebec separating from Canada within a year; school shootings in specific dates and places across the country; a stock market crash in 2004 or 2005; an attempt to assassinate the president in 2004 or 2006; and a race riot in Tennessee in the year 2001.

They also predicted that President Bush would win the 2000 election and later predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. 

As for the 9/11 terrorist attack predictions they said: "We are seeing terrorists attacks on the Federal Government, excuse me, Federal buildings. Particularly South Carolina or Georgia, by July 2002, and also the New York Trade Center, the World Trade Center in 2002."

The tragic failure here is not just that this psuedo-scientific nonsense -- the "woo, woo, woo" as Chang calls it -- is being embraced by a major broadcast network. The real tragedy is that the credibility of the "Nightline" franchise, which once set the standard for serious journalism on television, has been reduced to the level of hocus pocus and cold readings. That is truly beyond belief.

-- Ed Stockly

Photo: JuJu Chang interviews a pair of London twins, Joy and Gay Nicholson. Credit: Gary Shore / ABC

TV Skeptic: 'Ghost Hunters' goes to the dogs

Programs about supernatural investigation are big on cable right now, and people always like shows that feature dogs. On Wednesday night's episode of "Ghost Hunters," the TAPS team introduced a new member: Maddie, the 'Ghost Hunting Dog.' Brilliant! The concept practically markets itself. 

While the idea of a dog that hunts ghosts is not original (think "Scooby-Doo"), it's also not a bad idea. 

"We've been able to teach her to let us know if there is any signs of animal activity in a location," says TAPS lead investigator and dog handler Jason Hawes. "Also, she picks up on high-magnetic fields."

OK, dogs have a really good sense of smell, better hearing and night vision than humans, and are keenly aware of animal activity (particularly squirrels). Sensitivity to "high-magnetic fields" is a bit of a stretch.

But all those other traits could prove useful. In several recent "Ghost Hunter" episodes, it seemed that rodents may have complicated the investigations, and perhaps Maddie could have sniffed them out.

Note for the future: I wouldn't bring Maddie along on any investigations of hauntings at the Queen Mary. Based on the surprise the "Fact or Faked" team found in the bowels of the retired ocean liner, I think that could end badly. 

But in the run-of-the-mill investigation at the Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, S.D., she seemed to handle herself pretty well.

"She's basically an untainted investigator," says Grant Wilson, describing the balance Maddie brings to the TAPS team, "She's not bringing in any predispostions, she hasn't made any judgments ahead of time, whether this place is haunted or not, you can't get more honest than a dog."

Maddie may be the most skeptical member of the team. It's too bad she disappears after about 15 minutes into the episode. I was hoping she'd help prove the hauntings were faked by the greedy hotel manager with the goatee who was trying to drum up business by spreading rumors the place is haunted. (You know, just like Scooby.)

Instead, the team reviewed their evidence and when they reported their results, they indicated they saw things they couldn't explain, but this time, they didn't explain them as supernatural.

Maybe Maddie is having a positive influence.  

Good dog!

-- By Ed Stockly

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TV Skeptic: 'Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files' looks at the real 'Battle of L.A.'

What a night. Feb. 25, 1942. It was just weeks after Pearl Harbor and a day after a Japanese submarine had shelled Santa Barbara's oil fields. The West Coast was on alert and there were reports of aircraft approaching Los Angeles. The city was under blackout and the night sky was lighted by dozens of searchlights.

And then the shooting started. The incident became known as “The Battle of Los Angeles” and it has inspired books, movies and most recently the opening segment of the season premiere of “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files,” airing Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Syfy.

This episode examines what UFO experts believe is photographic evidence that aliens visited Los Angeles on that night in 1942. The show is filled with laughs and surprises, both intentional and not, and in the end reveals more about those who investigate the paranormal, than about any supernatural or alien presence. 

No one knows what, if anything, the GIs saw in the early morning hours when their antiaircraft batteries opened fire. And after more than 1,000 antiaircraft and .50-caliber machine gun rounds were expended, there was no evidence that they had hit any targets. A single moment of the incident was preserved in a dramatic photo that ran in the next day’s Los Angeles Times, the image of several searchlight beams converged on a single point in the night sky above Culver City. Over the years that photo became legend among UFO-ologists who maintain the searchlights were trained on an alien spaceship, and that the photo is evidence of an extra-terrestrial visitation.

Enter “Fact or Faked.” In each episode the series investigates evidence of the paranormal and it’s the L.A. Times photo that the team dissects and recreates. The show is a part of the paranormal/supernatural-investigation subgenre that has cropped up on cable television over the last few years, which includes “Ghost Hunters,” “Destination Truth,” “Ghost Adventures,” “Ghost Hunters International” and a few others. Each promises to take a skeptical approach in its investigations and to rely on science to confirm or disprove paranormal claims. So far not one has been able to consistently keep that promise.

TV Skeptic: The medium and Oz

On an episode of "The Dr. Oz Show" (5 p.m. KTTV) this week, the good doctor stepped away from his usual attention to the science and practice of medicine and instead welcomed the self-proclaimed psychic medium John Edward. The pair discussed whether communicating with the dead may be therapeutic.

In this age of modern medicine, Dr. Mehmet Oz, arguably one of the country's most influential doctors, seemed to be promoting a medieval therapy for today’s patients. The condition Edward claimed to treat is grief.

“Grief is an energetic form of cancer,” Edward told  the TV audience. “If it is not treated it will metastasize, and it will reach out and grow into other aspects of a person's life.”

And one therapy for this condition? Communication with the deceased through a medium can be “extremely therapuetic.” 

Dr. Oz then called upon Katherine C. Nordal,  executive director for the American Psychological Assn., who immediately disputed Edward’s description of grief. 

“Grief is not a disease,” she said, rather sternly, “It's not a disorder and it doesn't need a pill and often times normal grief doesn't even need counseling.”

But any hope the skeptic may have had that this noted authority would raise critical questions about the practice of visiting psychics and mediums for therapy were soon dashed. The show jumped to the next segment when Edward began his process, which he referred to as “readings.” 

TV Skeptic: 'Ghost Hunters' and things that go bump in the night

In Wednesday night's season premiere of "Ghost Hunters" on Syfy, the Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) travel to Alexandria, La., to investigate three allegedly haunted buildings in the heart of the city. 

The stars of the show, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, plumbers who put down their plungers and picked up video cameras, were invited by city officials to investigate unexplained occurrences at three Alexandria locations: the Diamond Grill, an upscale restaurant; Finnegan's Wake, a tavern; and the Hotel Bently, a vacant 103-year-old landmark.

In a typical episode, the cast and crew arrive at a location and are greeted by a host -- usually the owner or proprietor -- who describes events he or she has experienced or, more often than not, events he or she has heard about second- or third-hand, to which the host ascribes some kind of supernatural presence. The crew then deploys a variety of audio- and video-recording equipment throughout the site. At night they turn out the lights and explore the location in two-person teams armed with an arsenal of high-tech devices that they hope will illuminate any unnatural phenomena. They then reveal their findings to the host. 

In Alexandria, Hawes and Wilson met with Bill Hess from the mayor's office, and he described the buildings and provided a bit of the history. Hess is the city's liaison with film and television and is charged with encouraging productions to shoot in Alexandria. Clearly, he was successful in this case.

The process of investigation involves wandering around the empty buildings and interpreting nearly every bump in the night as some otherworldly presence. What else could those noises -- thumps and knocks and such -- be? Possibly the buildings settling, as they are all old and have undergone extensive renovation. Sounds could be caused by drafts. Most likely water in the plumbing, heating pipes or sump systems. But the viewer doesn't know because we see no effort to investigate any other possible source. You'd think plumbers would know better. 

TV Skeptic: 'Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide'

I will never forget my first encounter with Bigfoot. It was early one morning when I was in fifth grade. The school day had just started, and my desk was near the window, where I had a clear view of the adjacent forest and the rugged mountains beyond. Our teacher was handing out some reading material when I saw him. Big, hairy and scary, right there on the cover of the Weekly Reader. From that moment, Bigfoot captured my imagination. I read that little booklet from cover to cover, believing every word. 

But you grow up and things change. On Tuesday, the History Channel aired "Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide," a documentary that promised to hold Bigfoot up to the standards of modern science. This is not the first time science has taken on Bigfoot, but so far, it seems, whenever the Bigfoot legend and facts have squared off, the legend has won.

This Canadian-British production brought together a panel of scientists to analyze reports of "Bigfoot" sightings from around the world. Unfortunately, the scientists start off on the wrong foot, with a rather misleading argument.

The team points to the recent discovery of the Bili Ape, a large relative of the chimpanzee that lives in the Bili forest of the Congo. They claim that if a new species as large as this has managed to live undetected for so long, other species of giant ape-like creatures might still be out there.