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FROM: The Associated Press State & Local Wire March 10, 2003, Monday HEADLINE: Group that debunks paranormal strives to improve scientific coverage BYLINE: CHAKA FERGUSON, Associated Press Writer Excerpts: "When the center for Free Inquiry opens its newest office in Manhattan, it couldn't ask for a better greeting. The ornate sign outside the building at 30 Rockefeller Center reads "Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of our times" and a sculpture of the Greek god Prometheus stands prominently nearby. "If we had a patron saint, he would be ours," CFI-Metro NY Chairman Austin Dacey says of Prometheus, who brought fire and intelligence to humanity. The group of international skeptics, known for debunking psychics, ghosts and alien abductions, is opening a new office in Manhattan to promote better scientific coverage by the news media. ... The Center for Inquiry, based in Amherst, N.Y., is a non-profit organization with two major subdivisions: the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), which investigates paranormal and fringe science claims; and the Council for Secular Humanism, which promotes naturalism and secularism. It has branches across the globe, including Russia, Mexico, Nigeria and France, and publishes two magazines and a philosophy journal. The New York office, which was originally based in Montclair, N.J., will hold an open house on Friday and Saturday. "We are committed to reason, science and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human interest," said CFI founder Paul Kurtz. "So we represent a kind of naturalistic outlook that has largely been ignored by the news media and overlooked by the American public." ... the New York branch of CFI will try to link the news media and public with scientists and experts to cast a critical eye on fringe science and religious claims. Fellows of the scientific wing of the center include Francis Crick, who, along with James Watson, unlocked the secrets of DNA; Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's professor for the public understanding of science; and Bill Nye, the "Science Guy" of children's television. Pairing journalists and scientists will lead to better science coverage because many journalists don't understand the basics of scientific investigation, said Kristen Alley Swain, coordinator of the Science Journalism Center at the University of South Florida. "Scientists use a different language than what the public understands," she said. "The journalist is in the midst of interpreting the jargon. They have a difficulty bridging that gap." ... Kurtz said the public doesn't hear enough from the scientific community in debates about important issues such as human cloning, which would be banned by a bill passed by the U.S. House and now under consideration by the Senate. "If this passes, it will go down in the annals of history as infamously as the efforts to suppress Darwin and Galileo," Kurtz said. ... Swain co-authored a study on media coverage of a related topic, stem cell research, which found that journalists tended to quote politicians, religious figures and anti-abortion groups more than scientists on the issue. "One complaint I heard from scientists is that journalists tend to focus most on stories that have controversies," she said. "They probably just need to talk to scientists more than they do." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn