Bad slot for mumbo jumbo

Australian Skeptics are miffed by the ABC's decision to lend the Catalyst timeslot to Psychic Investigators for the summer, writes Leigh Dayton

FANS of ABC television's science program Catalyst may be in for a surprise when they tune in tomorrow night. Not only is the program off the air until February 11, its timeslot is being minded by psychics. Yes, there are 15 weeks of Psychic Investigators ahead.

Here's a sample of what to expect: "At any given time there are well over 20,000 women missing in the US. Margie Calciano was just another statistic. And for 20 years she didn't even have a name. Were it not for the collaboration of Detective Robert Wanner and professional psychic (emphasis added) Dr Lauren Thibodeau, the chances are Margie would have faded into history as an unidentified victim." That's straight from the ABC website. Worse, it's listed as a documentary.

Unfortunately for the ABC's Ian Taylor, head of programming Marena Manzoufas is "away from the office until Christmas". As her second-in-command, Taylor got stuck with queries about the science-to-psychic decision.

"With all our timeslots, when the (ratings) survey period is over and we enter into the summer schedule, everything goes out the window," he says with good humour. "(Psychic Investigators) may not be scientific," Taylor says, acknowledging the obvious, "but I do think it will be of interest to many of the people who are used to watching at that time."

He may think so, but I don't. My psychic powers tell me the switchboard will light up with complaints from Catalyst viewers such as Barry Williams, chief executive of Australian Skeptics.

"Have they taken leave of their senses at Aunty?" Williams says on hearing the news. "They've won two bent spoons in the past two years. Perhaps they're going for a hat-trick." For the uninitiated, the bent spoon is an award given by Australian Skeptics to (dis)honour the "perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle" of the year.

ABC TV got the gong last year for Second Opinion, which ran at 6.30pm on Tuesdays. It purported to inform viewers about alternative therapies for treating common ailments. Like Psychic Investigators, though, it didn't scrutinise the claims made by advocates.

In 2004, the otherwise innocuous ABC program The New Inventors snatched the (un)coveted bent spoon from the Ten network. Ten's effort, Sensing Murder, served up a panel of psychic detectives, while The New Inventors highlighted dodgy devices such as one purporting to use low-intensity sound to remove bacteria from water supplies.

Williams recalls that it was a tough choice: "When it came to the vote, although Sensing Murder was an appalling example of sensationalism and credulous insensitivity, it was felt that the ABC should be expected to adhere to higher standards in its programs than were normally exhibited by commercial networks." Fair cop.

And that's exactly the trouble with Psychic Investigators. The ABC - in this case Manzoufas, who Taylor says holds ultimate responsibility for scheduling decisions - should know better. Airing unsubstantiated paranormal hoo-ha is questionable at best. Scheduling it as the replacement for a science program is unforgivable. It's all about context. Psychic Investigators gains unwarranted credibility by sharing a spot with Catalyst, a program that tries hard to get it right. "If it's 8 o'clock, it must be science." That's a powerful psychological message.

It's also a point Catalyst reporter Paul Willis raised at the recent Australian Skeptics national convention. (Proving the Skeptics are embarrassingly psychic, the theme for this month's gathering was Science, Truth and the Media. They also awarded Martin Bridgstock their inaugural critical thinking prize for tackling paranormal piffle head-on in courses such as Scepticism, Science and the Paranormal. Spooky ... oooeeeeooo.)

Anyway, Willis says the media doesn't always get it wrong. Unchallenged mysticism on a religious program such as Compass or Radio National's The Spirit of Things is appropriate, if not scientifically correct. The same stuff on RN's The Science Show is not.

Meanwhile, another Williams, Robyn, regaled the Skeptics with tales of his verbal dust-ups with creationists, unhappy with his latest literary offering, Unintelligent Design: Why God isn't as Smart as She Thinks She Is.

Robyn Williams, Barry Williams and Willis are rightly concerned about the ABC management's confusion over science and psychic. (It must be the sibilant fronting each word.) So is another member of Australian Skeptics, Lynne Kelly. She's a science teacher and practising (fake) psychic. "It would be wonderful if psychics really could solve crimes," Kelly says.

Sadly, as Kelly documents in her 2004 book The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal, the hit rate of supposedly successful psychics drops to zilch when cases are thoroughly investigated. Further, psychics have even led police down the wrong path with false readings. They've also caused distress to already desperate people who hoped they could solve murders or find missing friends or family members.

ABC programmers may think Psychic Investigators is a bit of harmless summer fluff likely to snare viewers, but it ain't so. Willis, for one, is outraged: "We'll be a laughing-stock. Something has to be done." Wait, I can see it now: hands reaching for the phone, fingers dialling the ABC. Something is being done.