A group of skeptics known for debunking psychics, ghosts, alien abductions and other fringe-science is opening a New York City office to promote better scientific coverage by the news media.
Open houses were scheduled for this weekend at the Center for Inquiry's new Rockefeller Center office, near the headquarters of a number of media outlets and just steps away from the sculpture of the Greek god Prometheus.
"If we had a patron saint, he would be ours," CFI-Metro NY Chairman Austin Dacey said of the statue, which represents the god revered for bringing fire and intelligence to humanity.
Dacey said the time is right for the center's opening.
"There is irresponsible presentation of paranormal and supernatural phenomena and I think that media shares some of the blame," Dacey said.
The Center for Inquiry, based in Amherst, N.Y., is a nonprofit organization with two major subdivisions: the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, which investigates paranormal and fringe science claims; and the Council for Secular Humanism, which promotes naturalism and secularism.
It has branches in Russia, Mexico, Nigeria and France, and publishes two magazines and a philosophy journal. The New York office was originally based in Montclair, N.J.
"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."
A similar center in Los Angeles was opened two years ago to debunk the belief in the paranormal and supernatural spread by Hollywood movies and television shows. The late entertainer and writer Steve Allen, the original host of "The Tonight Show," was a longtime member of the group and wrote 15 books for the center's publishing house, Prometheus Books.
"(What) we have to do is demystify science," said Dacey. "The scientific method is not something mysterious or esoteric. It's just the extension of the same way we make up our minds in everyday life."
While the Los Angeles center focuses on entertainment media, 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."
Swain co-authored a study on media coverage of 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."
Kurtz said the public doesn't hear enough from the scientific community in debates about similar important issues, including human cloning, which would be banned by a bill passed last month by the House of Representatives and is 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.