Interview with dead gets Skeptics award

Press, 30 August 1989, Page 8

Interview with dead gets Skeptics award

The “Sunday News” has been given the 1989 Bent Spoon award by the New Zealand Skeptics for what they describe as a “sick” beyond the grave interview with the missing Swedish tourist, Heidi Paakkonen. The award is given annually to highlight what the Skeptics see as the most gullible news report of the year. It will be presented at Christchurch this week-end, at the annual meeting of the Skeptics, formally known as the New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

“In our years of monitoring absurd reporting, we’ve never seen anything as sick as the ‘Sunday News’ coverage of the disappearance of the Swedish tourists," said a spokesman for the group, Dr Denis Dutton.

“The ‘Sunday News’ claimed that an Auckland medium has contacted Heidi Paakkonen,” Dr Dutton said. “It then described in grisly detail psychic revelations of the deaths of Ms Paakkonen and her companion, Sven Hoglin. It even purported to tell where they are buried.

“Most disturbing is the credence ‘Sunday News’ gives to a clairvoyant’s description of the pair’s murderer: a tall Maori sheep shearer with missing front teeth, who lives between Opotiki and Te Kaha.

“It is highly mischievous for a newspaper to print as news a psychic’s fantasies about the race and identity of a criminal.

“This disgraceful story opens a whole mw genre of crime reporting: posthuibus interviews with milder victims,” said Dr Dutton. “We ’doubt if the

‘Sunday News’ would have run this tasteless story if Heidi Paakkonen’s family lived in New Zealand.” The Skeptics have praised several instances of journalists showing “critical excellence in reporting paranormal claims.”

Christopher Moore of “The Press” was cited for what the Skeptics describe as “a wickedly funny send-up of American U.F.O. abductee, Whitley Strieber.”

Two reporters for the “New Zealand Herald” in Auckland, Tapu Misa and Peter Calder, have also been praised. Misa wrote a tough-minded assessment of the cold-reading techniques of a group of self-styled psychics in Auckland and Christchurch, Dr Dutton said.

Calder critically analysed the claims of homeopathic medical treatment. Other positive awards from the Skeptics were:

• Shelley Vercoe of the "Nelson Evening Mail” for her analysis of a spiritualist’s psychic reading.

• Colin Feslier of Radio New Zealand for an “Iflsight” documentary on the teaching of Darwin in schools. • David Cohen of the “Evening Post” in Wellington, for his coverage of the New Age guru, Bernard Creme. • The consumer affairs producer, Hugh Young, for his National Radio series, "Counter Measure.”

The Bent Spoon award is named as a reminder of Uri Geiler, a “psychic” performer who hoodwinked experts and journalists into believing he could bend metal with the power of his mind. Later investigations revealed he was using ordinary magician’s tricks, the Skeptics said.