BREAKING NEWS:
RELIGIOUS FANATICS DESTROY CHERISHED AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS!


What - is that wascally Taliban at it again? Nope. Just John Edward, doing his "Crossing Over thang. From the press release:

Studios USA’s 'Crossing Over with John Edward' will attempt to communicate with victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in several episodes planned for the November sweeps for the syndicated and, perhaps, cable runs of the show.

Steve Rosenberg, the studio’s domestic syndication president, anticipating concerns by viewers, says the shows 'will be done tastefully…and won't be exploitative,'

Within minutes after the story broke wide-open on Matt Drudge, I received this announcement from Barry Karr, the moderator for the Skeptical Inquirer ListServ:

Subject: Re: Words Fail Me!
To: CSICOP-ANNOUNCE@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
"...This is one of the most disgusting events, shows, stories I've read about in a long time. David Bloomberg said it best: "What a pack of parasites..."
Barry Karr
CSICOP

I would like to throw this out to the list: What should a morally outraged skeptic do?

If you grew up in the late 20th Century Heartland of America, you might well have come to believe that seances were as common - and as eminently sensible - as Tupperware parties. Nearly every denizen of TubeWorld attempted to contact the dead if their show was successful enough to stay on the air for any length of time. (Odd that I don't recall ever being invited to a seance in real life.)

Those who mock "Crossing Over" should keep it in perspective, which includes the following:

My Favorite Martian
1/12/64 "Poor Little Rich Cat"
W & D: James Komack
Martin reads about a cat inheriting a fortune and he wants Tim to use the
newspaper to correct this injustice.
(Bernie Kopell, Dub Taylor, Moyna Macgill)

I Love Lucy
11/26/51: "The Seance"
I Love Lucy Episode 7 - Filmed 10/19/51
Story: Lucy and Ethel have taken up the art of the Ouija Board.
Guests: Jay Novello (Mr. Merriweather)
Based on My Favorite Husband #24 & #88 ("Numerology")
There's a wav from this here.

Hot Metal
"The Modern Promethius"
gs: Jack Watling [ PM MacNamara ], Aubrey Morris [ Nikita Kruschev ], Yvonne D'Alpra [ Mrs Tape ], Helen Atkinson-Wood [ Television Interviewer ], Eliza Buckingham [ Mrs MacNamara ], Michael Chesden [ Waiter ], Nicholas Geake [Television Announcer ], Julia Gilbert [ Assistant Stage Manager ]
The Crucible launches an all-out campaign supporting a return to capital punishment by interviewing murder victims through a seance and interviewing the brother of a state executioner who hanged himself. Spam discovers the man identified as Khrushchev is a fake, and the fellow dies during a live televsion interview.
b: 23 Feb 86

[Thanks to Tele-Tobias of TubeWorld for the references.]