I hadn't realised that the worst programme in a very poor telly schedule was so popular that it would win "Best Format/Reality Series" at the latest bullshit telly awards. The award demeans everybody up for an award that night -- the charlatans who put the fraudulent show together deserve not an award, but to be run out of town on a rail, not to mention what Detective Senior Sergeant Ross Levy of the New Zealand Police Force deserves for promoting psychics as "just another tool" in the investigative policing toolbox.
This pillock is clearly not the sharpest tool in the investigative toolbox himself, but he's only an idiot -- as this analysis of his foolishness makes clear -- albeit an idiot with powers of arrest. But the makers of the show are worse: they're cynically exploiting the families of murdered victims just to make a buck. Says Vicki Hyde from NZ's Skeptics Association, it's disturbing to think "that the very people we expect to protect us from fraud or false accusations are touting this industry. It doesn't give you any confidence in the police force if they think this is a reasonable approach to take in solving serious crimes."
"Sensing Murder is simply a marketing vehicle for the psychics and a money-spinner for a television company keen to exploit vulnerable families in the name of shoddy entertainment," she says. And she's right.
To the producer of this show, David Baldock, those who scheduled it, and to those who chose to give it an award, I bestow my deepest contempt. Not to mention all of you who tune in every week.
NB: Check out a clip from Eating Media Lunch's exposé of the gormless fraud Deb Wells at YouTube, and for real entertainment-with-a-point-to-it, the Bullshit! team of Penn & Teller exposing the methods by which frauds tell us they can "speak to the dead." YouTube has all three parts of that show.
15 comments:
Do you not feel some sort of internal conflict over this PC?
Not with respect to Police using psychics, which is a disgrace IMO, but in the fact that viewers volunteer their time to watch a program somebody made by paying their way, even if it is grounded in something that is certainly untrue (psychic power) but with an appearance of being real and, presumably, entertaining to boot, at least in the opinions of those watching.
Can a libertarian find a way to disagree on what are ultimately matters of taste?
I have to say that Detective Sergeant Ross Levy is a sucker. I hope that his bosses at the Police Headquarters in Wellington have had a word with him, about his approach to proper crime investigative methods and psychic is definitely not one of those tools.
I hope that they will relieve him from that duty (as a lead detective) or otherwise sack him, because he is bringing the Police's work into dis-repute here.
The Sensing Murder Production company (Ninox Television) approached Detective Sergeant Ross Levy who thought that their psychics had some new leads, however, the psychics didn't reveal anything new that the Police didn't know already. Sergeant Ross Levy simply went along and approved to collaborate with the psychics. What an idiot.
Matt said...
but in the fact that viewers volunteer their time to watch a program somebody made by paying their way
Matt, that's fine if the Production company (Nixon) paid for the program itself, however, TVNZ fund this year's 5 episodes with $ 1 million and this is a waste of taxpayer's money.
Good on Russel Brown from Media 7, for this YouTube grilling of CEO, David Baldock's of Nixon Television (Sensing Murder's production company) about its exploitations of the victim's families in the show.
Fuck Russell "Socialism" Brown.
this was paid for by 1M million of our taxes!
Crimes solved by mentalists?
ZERO.
'Law states entertainment only'
Matt, that's fine if the Production company (Nixon) paid for the program itself, however, TVNZ fund this year's 5 episodes with $ 1 million and this is a waste of taxpayer's money.
Taxpayer funding is incidental, isn't it? I presume this is a program that, being popular, pays its way, and PC wasn't slagging it off for its connection to taxpayers.
It is demonstrably not a waste of taxpayers money if (*if*) it succeeds in the market against competition and produces surplus sufficient to pay its bills.
This is not a program to my taste at all but apparently it is to a lot of other NZers. On what basis can it be argued it has wasted the funds provided to it? (presuming, again, this program pays its bills)
Matt said...
has wasted the funds provided to it?
There have been a number of University science projects that were canned due to lack of fundings. So do you think that the $1 million would have been useful if it was diverted to those projects rather than to producing Sensing Murder?
There is a difference in producing entertainment shows based on lies & psychic delusions and those that are based on honesty. Do you see the difference? Sensing Murder is promoted as truth, while it is the opposite, and you should know that. If it was promoted as illusions/fakes such as David Copperfield, then who is going to complain? After all, the success is solely based on the perceptions by gullibles/suckers out there that what they see are indeed facts/truths.
The show wouldn't have been a success if it was promoted as fiction, and you should know that.
this was paid for by 1M million of our taxes!
Anon,
Did you see the Russel Brown video link that I posted in my previous message? I thought not.
I suggest that both you & Matt click on that link and hear what David Baldock (producer of Sensing Murder) had to say. He quoted a detective police officer (not Ross Levy), who had told him (Baldock) the following:
Baldock quoted:
I got on record of an officer saying, If I had a $50,000 in 2 months, I could solve this case. I don't have the resources and I don't have the money.
If the $1 million was given to this detective (& other police departments around the country) so as to enable them to solve those unsolved murder mysteries, then it would have been useful and the proper thing to do.
David Baldock didn't have the courtesy to tell this detective at the time that he could have canceled his $1 million funding and instead offered it to him (the detective). But did he do that? Fuck, no. Why? Well, David knows how to use the Police (which they themselves are suckers & stupid) for maximum publicity/marketing of the show. That's right, you can approach the police for a (perhaps innocent) comment about the show, then twist it to your advantage.
Mattb, I have a question for you and may be you can correct me if I am wrong.
Is your project iPredict had any taxpayer funding involve? If the project paid for itself, then was it worth the taxpayer money? If you looking for more funding, and you find out that the government can't give you more because there is none available, but you hear that $1 million is going to the production of Sensing Murder (yes, commentators said that there will be a fourth season scheduled for 2009), then how would you feel about that?
I am interested to hear your view.
Matt B, 'libertarians' can do whatever they like, except for interfere with other people.
Telling others they are wrong is a human right that libertarians have never denied. :-)
Is your project iPredict had any taxpayer funding involve?
Of course it has.
iPredict is owned by Victoria Link Ltd, itself wholly owned by Victoria University of Wellington, and the Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation (ISCR), also in Wellington. Our primary purpose is academic research.
...
iPredict gratefully acknowledges the support of Victoria Link, the Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Massey University.
It just shows that the only load of useless drivel worse than "Sensing..." is the moronic media awards.
This 'program' is a nadir of intelligence. It shows all involved in the worst possible light. Unfortunately there is audience for this sort of crap, as there is for all dregage.
There is no accounting for taste, and no limit to foolishness. Its something we have to live with, but dammit I object to paying one cent for.
Advertisers take note. you just lost business.
"It is demonstrably not a waste of taxpayers money if (*if*) it succeeds in the market against competition and produces surplus sufficient to pay its bills."
I disagree, Matt. If the programme was funded from the public purse, any financial success generated does not justify the stealth of wealth (taxes) that enabled its creation in the first place.
Business man Stuart Landsborough has upped the ante to $400,000 if the Sensing Murder psychics , Kelvin Cruickshank and Deb Webber can complete a psychic challenge of his choosing.
Sensing Murder Reject $400,000 Psychic Challenge
Its beyond belief that the 3 star psychics of the show reject this easy $400,000 if they know that their claim is true.
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