Bent Spoons

Since I haven't seen this on any news sites, I'm posting the NZ Skeptics announcements re Bent Spoons and Bravo Awards. First: the Bent Spoons.

Skeptics Give Police Thumbs Down

The NZ Skeptics Bent Spoon for the most irresponsibly gullible statement in the media in the past year goes to Detective Senior Sergeant Ross Levy of the New Zealand Police Force for promoting psychics as "just another tool" in the investigative policing toolbox.

"What's next?" asks Skeptics Chair-entity Vicki Hyde. "Witness testimony from dreams and pre-emptive arrests on the basis of clairvoyant claims? The New Zealand Police Force has had enough credibility problems in recent years without this sort of thing making them look really shonky."

Levy has helped the most recent public relations campaign for "exploitainment" show Sensing Murder, making appearances on television and radio to talk about his interest in seeing what the psychics´ "take" was on an unsolved missing person´s case. It´s the second time he has been involved in the programme and he told Radio New Zealand´s Kathryn Ryan that he didn't see any issue of police credibility in supporting such an approach.

Levy stated that the aim was to "give the investigation as much exposure as possible in the hope of getting information in return". But Hyde says that this cheap exploitative alternative to "Crimewatch" was unlikely to help, adding that the Sensing Murder franchise has not been credited with providing any useful information anywhere in the world. The Whatstheharm.net website, which counts the costs of such claims, lists numerous cases where psychics erroneously told families their loved ones were dead when they weren't and vice versa, causing anguish to the families, wasting police time and sometimes pointing the blame at innocent parties.

"Sensing Murder is simply a marketing vehicle for the psychics and a money-spinner for a television company keen to exploit vulnerable families in the name of shoddy entertainment," says Hyde. Deb Webber now boasts of a five-year waiting list for her consultations and performances. "But it´s even more disturbing to think that the very people we expect to protect us from fraud or false accusations are touting this industry. It doesn´t give you any confidence in the police force if they think this is a reasonable approach to take in solving serious crimes."

Levy did admit that no new information had been provided by the psychics, all material having been previously uncovered by ordinary policing methods. Both Sensing Murder psychics had had previous contact with the family in the case, but Levy had a confident "gut feeling" that they had not elicited any information that way, having their "credibility and integrity to protect".

"I guess he didn´t see the Australian current affairs sting, played here last year on Eating Media Lunch and available on YouTube, showing Deb Webber talking with three dead people who didn't actually exist. Surely that says something very negative about her credibility, but it looks like even basic background checks weren´t done before the Detective Senior Sergeant allowed the Lower Hutt police station to be used as a TV set."


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