Calling all Skeptics!!

[thaiboxerken]

http://boards.courttv.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=77


Ok, Court TV has gone down the gutter and is now after ratings instead of maintaining integrity in their programming. I mean, a "Psychic Detective" show once in a while is silly.. but this is Psychic Detective Week at CTV. I'm asking help from all skeptics to help give insight to people at this charade. The board is for discussion of psychic detectives, and these people need some serious help with reality.

I'll let you know my screen name as soon as I get one.

[ProudAtheist]

I think this makes the 8th time you've been banned

[CFLarsen]

I'm there.

[geni]

you don't excatly go for the softly softly aproach do you?

[thaiboxerken]

I sent this to Nancy Grace of CTV.



I'd like to say that I enjoy much of the programming on CTV, as it is usually entertaining while at the same time being educational. The judicial system and investigative practices are great things to learn about, as they do affect us all.

This is not the case with "Psychic Detective week." I find it distasteful for CTV to go the route of ratings instead of maintaining some semblence of journalistic integrity. These shows simply cater to psuedoscientific claims and falsities that merely increase the profits of these "psychics", who have NEVER solved a crime. These shows do not educate people, but instead, have the opposite effect of perpetuating ignorance and gullibility of the audience.

Have you ever thought of voicing a skeptical opinion on these issues? It would be great to have a show that debunks these psychics, but perhaps that would not attract ratings. James Randi, or the James Randi Educational Foundation is an expert on these psychics and can provide much insight into how these psychics actually work. He also has one-million dollars that can be claimed by any psychic who can simply demonstrate psychic ability.

I urge CTV to stop placing ratings over ethics. These psychics are predators, feeding off of the finances and grief of those they claim to help. CTV should be actually trying to stop these psychics from thwarting the legal system, if they really cared about the public.

I understand you are not the program director, and I sincerely hope that you do not believe in these psychics yourself. Please voice these concerns to your program director. I also ask that you voice skeptical opinions about these issues.

Here is information on Carla Baron.

http://www.iigwest.com/carla_report.html

[CFLarsen]

Boy, am I there...

[geni]

might want to calm down a little. You've already tripled the traffic on that forum.

[thaiboxerken]

Quote:

Originally posted by geni
you don't excatly go for the softly softly aproach do you?

Well, that's why I'm calling for help. I lack the self-control to speak about nonsense politely.

[geni]

Quote:

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
Well, that's why I'm calling for help. I lack the self-control to speak about nonsense politely.

Well I've I got an account there. I'll wait and see if anything interesting happens

[thaiboxerken]

Quote:

Originally posted by geni
Well I've I got an account there. I'll wait and see if anything interesting happens

Well, I'll probably get banned, again.

[ProudAtheist]

Geni, you have to understand the way the posters at CTV work. They don't like any form of disagreement and get irate when asked a skeptical question.

[thaiboxerken]

It's Sunday, so the forum will probably be slow.

[ProudAtheist]

It'll pick up by tonight

[geni]

Quote:

Originally posted by ProudAtheist
Geni, you have to understand the way the posters at CTV work. They don't like any form of disagreement and get irate when asked a skeptical question.

Sounds very very fermilia. So anyone want to start a poll on how many posts each person will make before getting banned?

[JPK]

This could be fun.


This should get some disscusion going

I saw a Larry King Live show one night hosted by Nancy Grace. It was pretty much a paid advertisment for Psychic Detectives on Court TV. Nancy started every dialog by confirming that she has always been a dyed in the wool skeptic, but after see this she believes.

JPK

[thaiboxerken]

Maybe I should remain quiet until the discussion does get going. I think my blunt posts tend to shut down discussions by the believers.

[JPK]

Quote:

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
Maybe I should remain quiet until the discussion does get going. I think my blunt posts tend to shut down discussions by the believers.

For some reason I tend to get these people talking. I'll set it up and you can spike it.


JPK

[thaiboxerken]

Well, we've already been called trolls.

[CFLarsen]

Quote:

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
Well, we've already been called trolls.

It's a start....

[JPK]

Not exactly a friendly welcome over there. The water in that "cesspool" seems pretty uninviting.

JPK

[ProudAtheist]

Quote:

Originally posted by JPK
Not exactly a friendly welcome over there. The water in that "cesspool" seems pretty uninviting.

JPK

It never is friendly when you question them.
Alot of times if they cannot answer our questions with legitimate answers, they'll either spin and dodge or run away

[thaiboxerken]

I think the majority of the skeptics that just joined will be banned within the week.

[thaiboxerken]

Laurie McQuary is another "psychic" that his highlighted on CTV. I can't find much on her, though.

It sickens me that she lives within 20 minutes of me.

[Operaider]

Well, I'm there. Though probably not for long

[Operaider]

damn, still waiting for my account to ba activated.

Can't wait to jump into the fray

[thaiboxerken]

Hardly a fray there, I think the believers are just avoiding the forum now. I guess questions are just bad things to them.

[Azrael 5]

Quote:

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
Well, that's why I'm calling for help. I lack the self-control to speak about nonsense politely.

See geni,its not only me.

[thaiboxerken]

We have a real victim of Carla Baron on the board. Wow, is she ever emotional. She defends Carla like a Christian defends the bible, reason doesn't play much of a part of her arguments. Our simple questioning of Carla's powers and motivation have her very angry. Maybe we can talk sense into this lady, but I doubt it. She will be forever a sucker to Carla believing that a person with superpowers solved her son's murder case.

[Dragonrock]

Quote:

Originally posted by thaiboxerken
We have a real victim of Carla Baron on the board. Wow, is she ever emotional. She defends Carla like a Christian defends the bible, reason doesn't play much of a part of her arguments. Our simple questioning of Carla's powers and motivation have her very angry. Maybe we can talk sense into this lady, but I doubt it. She will be forever a sucker to Carla believing that a person with superpowers solved her son's murder case.

Her assertion that the Sheriff was hiding evidence makes me doubt the accuracy of her statements. What she considers "hiding" may have been the sheriff holding on to evidence longer than she felt was appropriate.

She is a grieving mother and I would doubt her ability to recall with accuracy, anything related to her son's case.

[Azrael 5]

Im in! I am the law(best ironic name I could think of)

[JPK]

I suggest going to RBalleza website and reading about this story.

RBalleza's site

Seems she feels there is a big police cover-up. Is this what happens when a psychic gets involved and starts telling grieving parents what they want to hear as opposed to what the investigators find?

newspaper article

Quote:

State Police investigator Terry Smith told the Camden News that a reconstruction of the accident was conducted and that no evidence was found that Stone died from foul play. "I do not have any concrete evidence except that this was an accident," Smith said. "Why wasn’t this mentioned when everyone was out there?" he asked. "Nobody came up with this until way after the accident." Smith said that Stone’s body bounced around in the car while it was turning over. "His head could have gotten hit then." Ellis, the trooper who completed the accident report, noted that Stone was not wearing a seat belt.

JPK

[thaiboxerken]

It seems like Balleza has a predrawn conclusion that her son was murdered as well as who did it. To me, it's very likely that Carla Baron simply is catering her "readings" to Balleza's needs and merely "validating" Balleza's suspicions. Of course, the police seem to have ruled this an accident, but that is not a satisfactory answer to this particularly emotional parent. I wonder if there are pictures of the car somewhere, as Balleza makes the accusation that the car was unscathed despite the police reporting that the car rolled over several times.

I think what is going on here is a distrust of authority coupled with the grief of a mother that is being played upon by a BS artist.

[JPK]

This is also from her website

Quote:

Timothy had served in a correctional facility for minor infractions that involved three other of his cohorts (whose names were never disclosed during court proceedings.) At the time of the automobile accident, Timothy had just been released from this facility - well on his way to a complete turn-around, as observed by several people in the community where he lived with his grandfather.

Along with contacting Carla for help, Renata hired a private investigating firm out of Little Rock, AR, to gather information on Timothy’s known associates before, during and after his stint in the correctional facility.

These investigators have since uncovered much in the way of information, one such fact being that there were two individuals who reportedly revealed to an acquaintance of Timothy that they were the ones responsible for his death and he was pulled from his car and beaten to death.

I wonder what life must be like in that town with this circus going on.

JPK

[Hellbound]

It's the south, for the most part people politely avoid the topic and continue on with their lives.

This isn't too far from me. Oddly, I don't recall hearing much about this, so it seems that it's pretty much restricted to local interest. Most likely it was a "filler" piece on Chanel 4. KARK is not known for sceptical or unbiased reporting (suprise suprise!).

I'd have to agree with other comments. A grieving mother decided that the boys her son didn't like were responsible, rather than accepting the fact that bad things happen. A "psychic" comes along and feeds all this back to her, stashing away a nice nest egg in the process.

[Phrost]

Someone needs to give you an award, Thai.

[FFed]

I just came across another forum with RBalleza going on about her investigation and (apparently) even Carla Baron makes some posts.

http://www.cybersleuths.com/cgi-bin/...c;f=2;t=000922

[JPK]

Quote:

Originally posted by FFed
I just came across another forum with RBalleza going on about her investigation and (apparently) even Carla Baron makes some posts.

http://www.cybersleuths.com/cgi-bin/...c;f=2;t=000922

Well RBalleza certainly leads an exciting life.

JPK

[Operaider]

Anyone else notice that on yesterday's Pyschic detective the psychic predicted that the victim was hit over the head in the parking lot? He wasn't and she completely failed to predict the second attacker.

[JPK]

I caught the end of it last night. Back in April, Nancy Grace was filling in for Lary King and the show was dedicated to promoting the Psychic Detective show on CourtTV. The case they aired last night was also done on LKL in april. If you watched the show close, the psychic didn't provide anything helpfull to solving the case. I believe the story has been edited since they showed it in april. I don't recall if they mentioned last night that the allegedly abducted man, Tyson, was turned loose by his captures and they gave him $1000.00 also.

From the Lary King Live Transcript:

Quote:

. He gets scared, carries him out, rapes him again, after raping him numerous times at the residence, carries him out, gives him $1,000. And Tyson tries to convince him that he's not going to tell me about it, and Anita, carries him within a mile of our residence and turns him loose. And he runs through the -- one of our neighbors'. They call us at 2:00 o'clock in the morning.

I also found it odd that the police knew the man was missing before his parents.

From the Lary King Live Transcript:

Quote:

Well, it was about midnight. He was at work, and he was supposed to get off work at 10:00 o'clock, and he was supposed to come down to the deer camp and spend a couple of days with us. And about midnight, a car drove in, and I thought it was his truck and -- but it wasn't. It was the sheriff. Henry saw him, and he said, Well, what's up? And he said, I think we've got a problem. He said, We can't find Tyson.

JPK

[JPK]

In that transcript, Nancy Grace constantly reminds us just how much of a skeptic she is, and it's a good thing because you wouldn't know it.

Quote:

If you are a cynic like me, someone that only believes in hard evidence, you're going to find tonight's show very tough to believe

Quote:

Now, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool cynic like I am, you may not believe this, but take a listen.

Quote:

If you are a cynic like me, you're going to find tonight's show very tough to take in.

TRANSCRIPT

JPK