Re: Warning: Media Backlash (was CoS Ad in Fortean Times)

ML. Poulter (plmlp@mail.bris.ac.uk) wrote: : In article <3rs58a$9ar@infa.central.susx.ac.uk>, : Alexander Farran <alexf@cogs.susx.ac.uk> wrote: : >In the June-July issue (#81) of Fortean Times: The Journal of Strange : >Phenomena there is a 1/8th page ad for the CoS. I have copied it out below. : [hack, rend, tear...] : >I found this very disturbing. The Fortean Times, for those of you who don't : >know, takes a fairly lighthearted, and slightly sceptical, look at UFOs, : >Bigfoot, Strange Coincidences, ancient religions etc. FT encourages free : >thought and discussion. I cannot believe that the editors would knowingly : >accept an advert for a criminal mind control organisation.

Nenslo Replies: I wonder if you may be giving FT a bit more credit than they deserve. I have found a consistent lack of discernment in their choices of material presented as if credible or worthy of note. Some well-known media fictions, for example the tale included in their volume of The World's Most Incredible Stories of the self-winding watch found still running in a cow's stomach ten years after it was swallowed. Incredible indeed, since it was invented well over a hundred years ago as a filler novelty for country newspapers. Or their straight-faced publication of a letter claiming that illustrations of motifs from assyrian and babylonian art showed people wearing wristwatches and using portable computers - ignoring the fact that the figures also had BIRD HEADS on human bodies. My letter to the editors on this latter topic was ignored. Please consider also that the publisher of Fortean Times is also responsible for VIZ, a deliberately tasteless comic publication featuring such characters as The Fat Slags and Sid The Sexist. It is my opinion that reading Fortean Times as a skeptical or even a RESEARCH publication would be unwise. It is a fine medium for accumulating stories, but should not in any way be considered an investigative journal. Research and judgement on the part of the reader is still necessary.

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