James ‘The Amazing’ Randi has seen fit to respond to my article “The Myth of the Million Dollar Challenge” in his latest newsletter. Apparently, I am a “grubby”, who has published a “19,000 word tirade”! I’ve added a postscript to the essay, noting Randi’s response, and correcting some errors (most importantly, he constantly refers and responds to Loyd Auerbach as the author of the article, which even a superficial read would show not to be the case). In happier news, the article seems to have prompted Randi to lower the odds of the Challenge to make it more inviting – so kudos to him for taking some of the criticism on board in the way it was intended.
One final note: I do think it bears pointing out (as I did in the comments section), that I did ask for comment from the JREF when writing the article. I emailed the JREF on the 4th of February about the article, asking for input. I followed up on the 7th. I received a minor contact from them on the 14th, which was actually my original ‘deadline’ that I had set for publishing the article. I therefore told them that I was extending the deadline to allow time for their input. On the 22nd, after receiving no response, I emailed them to say that I was posting the article, but that I would be more than happy to add a postscript to the article if they had comments to add. Randi’s article appeared today, the 29th. Personally, I would prefer a more constructive dialogue, rather than shouting across the room…but I can only imagine the latter suits Randi better.
