Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

The episode of Geraldo Live that I blogged about on Thursday entitled Psychic or Con Artist has certainly created a stir, and further calls from the community for responsible journalism in regards to these topics. See the comments section under the above linked entry.

Here is a snippet from an email sent to me by my dear friend, and colleague Dr. Carla Brandon. I am quite certain she will not mind my sharing with you.

Last Saturday night, Fox Television aired a news program called "Geraldo at Large" which did a segment on Dr. Gary Schwartz. Below is a brief bio on Gary:

Gary E. Schwartz, who received his PH.D. from Harvard University, is a professor of Psychology, teaching courses in psychology in the departments of Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry and Surgery at the University of Arizona. He is also the Director of The VERITAS Research Program of the Human Energy Systems Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. The stated goal of The VERITAS Research Program is "using individuals called mediums to communicate with the deceased" and using scientific methodology and protocol to measure the results. Dr. Schwartz is the co-author of The Living Energy Universe, and is the author of The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death and The Truth About Mediums and has published several hundred scientific papers and edited eleven academic books.

Long story short, Geraldo Rivera presented a very slanderous presentation of Dr. Schwartz and his research on this news program. Whether you agree with his findings or not, the segment was so off balance it not only gave Gary a bad name, but indirectly trivialized all research into after death communication, medium-ship, deathbed visitations, etc. The usual condemnation of "taking advantage of the bereaved," was thrown around one more time.

Having been on Geraldo's show in the 90s, I do know how he and his producers operate, and know its all about ratings, but I must say in this instance he really sunk to a new low. His producers did not check their facts thoroughly, telephoned Gary only once, while he was out of town, the day before show airing and ended up presenting a "Randi" type of programming. The skewed information is really shocking. For information on this "Geraldo at Large" segment, go to Gary Schwartz's site at www.drgaryschwartz.com

If you want fair and balanced media representation on topics of this nature, and feel inclined as I did, let Geraldo and his staff know how you feel about such incredibly slanted journalism at: atlarge@foxnews.com

Reminds me when we were threatened by a FOX TV producer for refusing to be a part of one of their shows. We were asked if we "knew who we were refusing" ... and in a conference call without missing a beat Matthew said, "yeah, the same people who brought us Temptation Island." Now we can add Geraldo Live to that list.