MediaWatch

31 March 1999

Very many thanks to everyone who sent in clippings for this issue. Please continue to send your tapes, cassettes and video, and press cuttings to Nick Campion, 51 Bellevue Crescent, Bristol BS8 4TF. Even if I don’t cover these in Transit, they will go in the archives, and could be an invaluable resource to future astrologers.

Radio 4 carried two relevant items on 2 March. The ‘Today’ programme included a feature on the question of erratic behaviour at the Full Moon. The feature began with a token pagan talking about nude dancing and included a spokesperson fom the Fortean Times who argued that the origin of belief in Full Moon lunacy lay in the demonisation of pagan practices by Christians, on the grounds that pagans must be mad.

It also included the interesting news, which a keen student might like to follow up, that the Lunacy Act includes a reference to the Full Moon. A professor from London’s Maudsley Hospital claimed that 80 percent of health professionals believe that the Full Moon influences behaviour and sceptic Mike Hutchinson pointed out that the reason may be that they connect some busy periods to the Full Moon, but do not notice that many other busy periods do not coincide with Full Moons. ‘Shop Talk’, at 4.30 pm focussd on forecasting with guests including pundits from the Henly Forecasting Centre.

What came over very strongly was the utter fatuousness of their attempts to predict the future, with one participant predicting a rise in a sense of community, another forecasting the opposite, as if such things could be easily measured. Aside from that the predictions were very much extensions of current tends: for example, people will get richer. 

The presenter listened to this discussion with great respect. However, Christeen Skinner was included as an obvious ‘joke’ slot. The researchers, though, had forgotten to tell the presenter that Christeen is utterly reasonable and totally responsible. He had a series of reactions to her presumed statements in front of him, moving from ‘but how can the stars influence the markets’ to ‘it all sounds a bit irrational’ and ‘it smacks of magic and mumbo-jumbo’. Christeen’s sober claims rendered his pre-scripted comments absurd, and it is a shame that he lost the chance for a proper discussion of the very interesting fact that businesses use astrology (my experience, when I used to see clients, was that businessmen use astrology precisely because they already know that the markets are so irrational). Christeen’s response to the presenter’s comments was usually ‘well, it may seem like that to you’, and worked well in showing the shallowness of his interviewing technique.

More on Glenn Hoddle: Channel 4’s documentary ‘Hoddle and the Healer’ (23 March 1999) was a remarkably fair account of the tabloid furore over Hoddle’s use of faith-healer Eileen Drury to treat members of the England football squad. It was fair because it allowed Hoddle and Drury to speak for themselves. The only England player stated never to have used Drury was Paul Gascoigne. Of those who did use her, the case of Darren Anderton was featured. Anderton’s torn ligaments were not respondong to orthodox treatment and, according to the player, only the exercises Drury precribed for him had allowed him to remain in the squad. A Vedic philosopher was interviewed who pointed out that Hoddle’s problem was the inarticulate manner in which he expressed his belief in reincarnation. The programme drew attention to the irony of the fact that Hoddle was damned by appeal to the same poliitcal correctness which also insists that Divali be accorded as high a status as Christmas in multi-cultural schools. In the scenes demonstrating a faith-healing session the healer was legendary Britsol astrologer Janet Swan. 

The Sunday Times on 28 March carried two astrology stories. The first (p 29), alleged a retired KGB general and expert in Chinese astrology, Georgi Rogozin, had been using a team of twelve astrologers to provide advice for Yeltsin and other senior officials. This sort of story has been covered before by the Sunday Times and has the ring of exaggeration about it. The other story concerned Conservative leader William Hague’s new press officer, Amanda Platell, the former editor of the Sunday Express. The report (p. 21) quoted extensively from Russell Grant.

Mystics more credible than Darwin: The following cutting was sent by Hamish Saunders from the New Zealand Herald, 6 March 1999. The author of the front page story was Mary Jane Boland.

"More New Zealanders believe that fortune-tellers can foresee the future than accept the theory of evolution.

The finding is one of several in a survey on religion by Massey University that has prompted scientists and sceptics to claim the education system is failing to teach basic scientific theories.

Just 30 per cent of nearly 1000 respondents said they accepted Darwin's theory that humans evolved over millions of years, yet more than 40 per cent believe fortune-tellers can predict the future. A similar proportion believe in spiritual miracles.

"When astrology and fortune-telling have more credibility than the greatest discoveries of modern science for a sizeable proportion of the populace, the education system has fallen down badly," Associate Professor Denis Dutton, of Canterbury University, said yesterday.

Professor Dutton, also a spokesman for the Sceptics Society, said he was astounded that so many people were gullible to "quacks and frauds."

The study is part of an international academic programme involving social and economic trends in 29 countries. Its New Zealand director, Professor Phillip Gendall, said he was also surprised at the numbers who believed in faith-healers and fortune- tellers. "If you look at the other things in the survey it's clear that there's some fundamental need for faith in something; a feeling that there must be more than life here," he said. "Church attendance may he down in most of the mainstream churches but the fact is that is just one of the manifestations of religiosity." About 53 per cent of those surveyed said they believed in God, a further 8 per cent had faith occasionally, and 19 per cent said they believed in a higher power.

New Zealand mirrors other countries in terms of whether older or younger people find religion or spirituality important. Of those randomly selected from the electoral roll and surveyed by mail, 60 per cent of New Zealanders believed in life after death. Roughly the same number said they prayed at least several times a year. Older people tended to have strong beliefs in mainstream religions such as Catholicism and Anglicanism. Their children - people in their 40s - mostly avoided religion. 

But those in their 20s and younger tended to believe in something, be it a mainstream faith, Buddhism or another alternative religion. A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church, Lyndsay Freer, said the survey showed many people were looking for meaning in their lives. With a more holistic approach to bringing up children, there had been renewed interest in self-awareness and looking beyond the superficial. "

And lastly - it’s never too late to send in tapes and clippings. Many thanks to Miss V. Reed of Hull  who has sent in a cassette of James Randi, the magician and legendary scourge of astrology and the paranormal. 

MediaWatch is compiled by Nick Campion