Last year I did a short commentary when what can only be described as a ‘witch-hunt’ began against British ‘psychic’ Sally Morgan, after a couple of phone-in callers to a radio show suggested that they heard people feeding her information via a wireless earpiece at her show:
Last week, a number of skeptics on Twitter began discussing a radio call-in show in Ireland in which someone said they had witnessed fakery at a show given by British ‘psychic’ Sally Morgan (you can listen to audio at YouTube). It remained a relatively low-key news item however, until yesterday when Professor French published an article in the Guardian with the rather definitive title, “Psychic Sally Morgan hears voices from the other side (via a hidden earpiece)“…
…So you can be sure that other skeptics were quick to urge caution, right? Wrong, the ‘fact’ of Sally Morgan’s guilt went viral. Phil Plait (138,000 followers): “You’d think a real psychic would know if their methods were about to be exposed.” Derren Brown (855,000 followers): “Sally Morgan caught proper cheating. Connecting you with dead loved ones via earpiece.” Andy Nyman (20,000 followers): “Sally Morgan isn’t Psychic – she’s been caught using an earpiece. Another disgusting fake psychic” (followed by a later ‘correction’). The JREF (10,000 followers): “Psychic Sally Morgan hears voices from the other side (via a hidden earpiece)”.
As I said at the time, my criticism certainly wasn’t meant as support for the validity of ‘Psychic Sally’ – it was instead a reaction to how hearsay from just a couple of people could spark outright attack against an individual. Not to mention that such an irrational, reactionary attack was being led by self-labeled ‘rationalists’.
My reason for bringing up this issue is that last night Derren Brown played the same Dublin theatre where the incident originally happened, and he spoke to the staff there. This is what he subsequently tweeted:
Assured by the crew here that it was NOT Sally’s ppl cuing her. It WAS just lighting ops chatting with window open. (They were making fun: show was apparently not good). The ‘not good’ bit obviously subjective. Point was, no sneakery from the lighting op room. There you go.
I haven’t seen that retweeted by *any* of the high-profile skeptics who originally accused Sally Morgan of being fed information (let alone an outright “I shot my mouth off, my bad”). Poor form.
