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- Subject: "Fate" Replies to Electronic Publishing of Klass' "Crybaby"
- Editorial In the May, 1992 "Fate" Magazine, p.12-18
- In the past several years microcomputers, also known as
- personal computers or PCs, have become wildly popular. Many
- have them at home and use them for such purposes as keeping
- records, educating children, typing letters and playing games.
- FATE itself is produced almost entirely on Apple Macintosh
- PCs. One of the uses of PCs is to communicate with other
- PC users in a place they call "cyberspace" (a name taken
- from a science fiction novel). Actually, cyberspace is a place
- where electronic communication takes place - it has no physical
- existence. The linking of PC users, done with the help of a
- computer device called a "modem", takes place on a "bulletin
- Board System," or "BBS." There are thousands of BBSes around the
- U.S.A.
- The people who use BBSes communicate on a variety of
- subjects, including the paranormal. Skeptics participate on
- BBSes, too.
- Recently, an article written over a decade ago has begun to
- appear on the BBSes. It was written by Philip J. Klass, one of
- the primary members of the Committee for the Scientific
- Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). We are
- mentioning this because the article is an attack both on FATE and
- an article we published. As we do not have our own BBS, we are
- responding here.
- In 1981 we published an article entitled sTARBABY by Dennis
- Rawlins, a former member of CSICOP. In it he revealed that CSICOP
- faked information on research into one aspect of astrology and
- then committed a coverup of what they did. The result was that
- CSICOP lost many members and, contrary to its name, no longer
- will sponsor any investigations. They have never apologized for
- what they did, although they have admitted that "mistakes were
- made."
- sTARBABY was published only after the most intensive study
- of the documentation by Rawlins that FATE ever performed.
- According to Jerome Clark, FATE was supplied hundreds of pages of
- documentation along with tape recordings of telephone calls. Due
- to the severity of the charges in that article, we ran it by our
- lawyers before publishing it. There are strong charges made. We
- have no doubt that lawsuits would have been filed if there were
- any errors in that story. No such suits were ever filed.
- Mr. Klass did, however, send us a rambling, logicless
- article he entitled "Crybaby". It refuted almost nothing but
- attempted to show that Mr. Rawlins was a troublemaker. It is
- Crybaby that is making the rounds via BBSes. We remind you, once
- again, of Cicero's advice ["if you have no case, abuse the
- plaintiff"]. It would seem that Mr. Klass has followed it to the
- long-winded letter.
- The version of Crybaby making the rounds now has an
- introduction that has some misleading information. They say,
- "FATE adamantly refused to publish this article." According to
- Clark, he wanted to publish it because its poor quality would be
- more of an embarrassment to Klass than a true refutation of
- sTARBABY. He was overruled in this as FATE did not want to
- include the poor writing.
- According to Clark, FATE requested an article that dealt
- with the issues of sTARBABY rather than the poorly written
- Crybaby. Ten years later we have received nothing.
- There is a new addendum to Klass's article. The addition was
- written by Robert Sheaffer in November 1991. It has nothing to do
- with sTARBABY, but continues the attack on Rawlins. The subject?
- Whether Admiral Peary actually reached the North Pole!
- The truth of the matter is this:
- 1) After a decade, CSICOP is still smarting from the
- drubbing it took as a result of its actions as revealed in
- sTARBABY. It is still affecting the group and its membership.
- 2) In spite of its name, CSICOP no longer investigates
- anything, nor does it sponsor research.
- 3) CSICOP members have learned how to apply the advice of
- Cicero.
- It would seem that the term "crybaby" actually should be
- applied to Klass and CSICOP.
- My comments on the above editorial from FATE:
- It strains credibility to claim that an article written by a
- professional journalist of over thirty years' standing who has
- won numerous awards for his excellence in writing, is unpublisha-
- ble because it is "logicless" and of its "poor quality". For
- example, in 1973 Klass was named a fellow in the Institute of
- Electrical and Electronic Engineers for his accomplishments in
- technical writing, and in 1989 the Aviation and Space Writers
- Association awarded Klass its most prestigious Lauren D. Lyman
- Award. A much more credible reason is: FATE had long been seeking
- about for a convenient mallet to use for bashing CSICOP, and
- decided that Rawlins' "sTARBABY" would serve nicely, regardless
- of whether or not Rawlins' charges were well-grounded; hence,
- they did not want the weaknesses in Rawlins' case to be known to
- their readers. Jerome Clark, who was then associate editor of
- Fate (and is currently the editor of the CUFOS Bulletin), is the
- one who claimed that the "poor quality" of Klass' article would
- have been an embarrassment to all parties involved. For those who
- have not read it, I attach Klass' "Crybaby" below; you be the
- judge of whether or not Jerome Clark was lying about its obvious
- "poor quality". In any case, Klass still has a letter dated Dec.
- 1, 1981 from Mary Margaret Fuller (then Editor of Fate) which
- gives as the excuse for not publishing "Crybaby" that "nothing in
- your manuscript refutes [Rawlins'] allegations." Again, re-read
- Klass' article, then you may be the judge of whether or not THIS
- particular excuse for refusing to publishing it is valid.
- As for the postscript I added about Rawlins and his harsh charges
- about the supposed conspiracy and coverup of Admiral Peary's
- alleged failure to reach the North Pole, that, too, is attached
- below. Fate wants you to think it was absurdly irrelevant for me
- to bring this up, but clearly it is not, as it reveals Rawlins'
- propensity for making reckless accusations. It lays bare Rawlins'
- _modus operandi_ to those who know him only for "sTARBABY."
- Rawlins' recklessness in charging the National Geographic Society
- with a coverup and conspiracy is truly appalling, and his
- insistence on maintaining these same bizarre charges even after
- they were definitively refuted demonstrates his visions of
- "conspiracies" to be utterly devoid of any connection to reality.
- Finally, lest Fate get too smug complimenting itself in its
- supposed success in causing CSICOP to "lose members", consider
- this: In 1981, when Rawlins' "sTARBABY" was published, CSICOP's
- quarterly journal "The Skeptical Inquirer" had a circulation of
- approximately 8,000. At present, its circulation is approximately
- 35,000.
- - Robert Sheaffer
- "CRYBABY"
- By Philip J. Klass
- Philip J. Klass is a member of the Executive Council, Committee
- for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
- (CSICOP).
- [Note: This article, written in 1981, was submitted for
- publication to FATE Magazine, in reply to Dennis Rawlins'
- accusations against CSICOP in his Oct., 1981 FATE article
- "sTARBABY". FATE adamantly refused to publish this article.
- Meanwhile, Rawlins was given the opportunity to make a
- rambling, six-page statement in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER
- (Winter, 1981-82, p.58), which was published exactly as
- received, presenting his accusations of a "coverup." This
- was in addition to the 5 1/2 page article he earlier had on
- the "Mars Effect" in the Winter, 1979-80 issue (p.26). To
- this day, supporters of the paranormal still charge CSICOP
- with perpetrating a "coverup" on this matter. Only a
- relatively few people ever saw Klass' "CRYBABY", the long
- and detailed answer to Rawlins' "sTARBABY" charges. Now that
- you have the opportunity to read Klass' rebuttal, you can
- make up your own mind.
- Klass' original text has been reproduced below, exactly as
- typed, with the author's permission. Spelling and
- punctuation have not been changed. Text that was underlined
- in the original appears in capital letters.
- - Robert Sheaffer, Bay Area Skeptics, 1991.
- This article is brought to you courtesy of the Bay
- Area Skeptics' BBS, 415-648-8944, from which it is
- available for downloading, although not via FTP.]
- "They call themselves the Committee for the Scientific
- Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. In fact, they are a
- group of would-be-debunkers who bungled their major
- investigation, falsified the results , covered up their errors
- and gave the boot to a colleague who threatened to tell the
- truth." Thus began a 32-Page article in the October 1981 issue of
- FATE magazine, which a a press release headlined: "SCIENTIST
- BLOWS THE WHISTLE ON PARANORMAL COVERUP."
- Since CSICOP was formed in the spring of 1976, it has been a
- thorn in the side of those who promote belief in "psychic
- phenomena," in astrology, UFOs, and similar subjects and it has
- been criticized sharply by FATE whose articles generally cater to
- those who are eager to believe. However, this FATE article was
- written by skeptic Dennis Rawlins, who was one of the original
- Fellows in CSICOP and for nearly four years had been a member of
- its Executive Council. This would seem to give credence to
- Rawlins' charges -- except to those of us with first-hand
- experience in trying to work with him and who are familiar with
- his modus-operandi.
- Because Rawlins proposed my election to CSICOP's Executive
- Council I cannot be charged with animosity toward him, except
- what he later engendered by his actions. And in a recent letter
- to me, Rawlins volunteered that I "was less involved than any
- other active Councillor" in the alleged misdeeds.
- The FATE article, entitled "sTARBABY" prompted my own
- investigation into Rawlins' charges. But unlike Rawlins, who
- relies heavily on his recollection of conversations several years
- earlier, I chose to use hard evidence - published articles,
- memoranda and letters, some of which Rawlins cites in his
- article. When I requested copies of these letters and memoranda
- from the several principals involved, all of them responded
- promptly and fully except for one -- Dennis Rawlins, who had
- accused the others of "cover-up" and "censorship." RAWLINS
- REFUSED MY REPEATED REQUESTS TO SUPPLY HARD DATA THAT MIGHT
- CONFIRM HIS CHARGES, AND WHICH ALSO COULD DENY THEM!
- The results of my investigation, based on hard data,
- prompted me to conclude that the Rawlins article should have been
- entitled "CRYBABY," and that an appropriate subtitle would have
- been: "A wounded ego is the root of much evil."
- If the editors of FATE had spent only a few hours reading
- published articles cited in the Rawlins article they could not in
- good conscience have accused CSICOP of "cover-up" or of having
- "falsified the results." Instead, FATE chose to ignore the
- traditional journalistic practice of investigating both sides of
- a controversial issue and publishing both sides, as those accused
- by Rawlins had done.
- Rawlins' charges result from two tests intended to assess
- whether the position of the planet Mars at the time of a person's
- birth has a significant influence on whether he/she becomes a
- "sports champion." This "Mars effect" hypothesis was first
- proposed by France's Michel Gauquelin, who directs the laboratory
- for the Study of Relations between Cosmic and Psychophysiological
- Rhythms, based on a study of European champions.
- The first of the two tests was performed by Gauquelin
- himself, with results that generally were supportive of the Mars
- effect hypothesis by eliminating a possible objection that first
- had been raised by others, i,e, not CSICOP. The only way in which
- CSICOP, or persons affiliated with it, could be guilty of
- Rawlins' charges would be if they had refused to publish
- Gauquelin's results or had intentionally altered the data in his
- report. NEITHER OCCURRED. Nor did Gauquelin accuse CSICOP or its
- members of trying to "cover-up" his results or altering the data
- of this first test whose calculations he himself performed,
- although there were some differences of interpretation of the
- implication of these results.
- HOWEVER, GAUQUELIN DID PUBLICLY ACCUSE RAWLINS OF DISTORTION
- AND MISREPRESENTATION, with implied criticism of CSICOP because
- Rawlins then was a member of its Executive Council. There would
- be other occasions when CSICOP would be criticized because of
- Rawlins' intemperate statements and actions.
- This criticism was published by CSICOP in the Winter l978
- issue of its publication, THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER (p. 80). In it
- Gauquelin wrote: "How, in spite of all this data could one
- distort and misrepresent the effect in question and sow doubts on
- the subject? Dennis Rawlins, a member of CSICP ... has done just
- this in a polemic which appeared in the Fall-Winter 1977 issue of
- that (CSICOP's) journal." In "sTARBABY," Rawlins tries to shift
- the blame for his transgressions to CSICOP.
- According to "sTARBABY," CSICOP Chairman Prof. Paul Kurtz
- was the principal architect of the alleged cover-up. Yet in
- reality it was Kurtz, then editor of THE HUMANIST magazine
- (published by the American Humanist Assn.) who printed the
- lengthy paper by Gauquelin describing the seemingly favorable-
- for-him results of the first test in the Nov/Dec,l977 issue (p.
- 30). What kind of doubletalk is this when Rawlins and FATE charge
- that Kurtz's decision to publish test results favorable to an
- "adversary" represents a "cover-up"? Rawlins might better have
- waited until "l984" to resort to such "double-speak" accusations.
- Because the issues are complex and because two different
- publications and organizations were involved, it is useful to
- recount briefly the events that led to the first Mars effect
- test, which is at the root of the Rawlins/FATE charges, and the
- second tests performed using data for outstanding U.S. athletes.
- Based on calculations performed by Rawlins himself, the U.S.
- champions test showed a very UNFAVORABLE result for the claimed
- Mars effect, which Rawlins confirms in "sTARBABY." And these
- Rawlins-computed results were published, without change, by
- CSICOP.
- The Sept/Oct. l975 issue of THE HUMANIST carried an article
- by L.E. Jerome that was critical of astrology in general and of
- the Mars effect in particular. When Gauquelin sought an
- opportunity for rebuttal, Kurtz provided it in the Jan./Feb. 1976
- issue of THE HUMANIST, which also carried several other articles
- on astrology. Because Gauquelin's article claimed that the
- Mars effect had been confirmed by Belgian Committee for the
- Scientific Investigation of Alleged Paranormal Phenomena (created
- some 25 years earlier), that group also was invited by Kurtz to
- submit an article for publication. Belgian Comite Para, as it is
- called, confirmed Gauquelin's calculations. But it questioned his
- statistical assumption "that the frequency distribution of the
- hours of birth during the day (the nych-themeral curve) is a
- constant distribution...", i.e. that there is an equal
- probability of a person being born during any hour of the day.
- This seemed important because the Mars effect hypothesis
- holds that persons born during an approximately two-hour period
- just after Mars has "risen" or during a comparable period after
- Mars is at upper culmination (zenith), are more likely to become
- sports champions than persons born during other hours of the day.
- If there is an equal probability of a person being born in any
- one of the 24 hours, then 4/24, or l6.7%,of the general
- population should be born when Mars is in one of these two "key
- sectors." (Because of combined orbital motions of Earth and Mars,
- the percentage of the day in which Mars is in two key sectors is
- approximately l7%. But Gauquelin reported that 22% European
- champions in his data base had been born when Mars was in the two
- key sectors, significantly higher than the l7% "benchmark."
- Because of the issue raised by Comite' Para, Kurtz
- consulted statistics professor Marvin Zelen who in turn proposed a
- control test that could resolve the statistical issue raised by
- Comite' Para. This Zelen proposed test, also published in the
- same (Jan./Feb. 1976) issue of THE HUMANIST, suggested that
- Gauquelin should gather birth data for "non-champions" who had
- been born in the same local areas and within three days of a
- RANDOMLY SELECTED sub-sample of Gauquelin's "champions" who
- seemed to show the Mars effect.
- If only 17% of these NON-champions were born when Mars was
- in the two key sectors, this would void the issue raised by
- Comite Para. But if roughly 22% of the NON-champions also were
- born when Mars was in the two key sectors, this would undercut
- the Mars effect hypothesis. Zelen's article concluded that the
- proposed test offered "an objective way for unambiguous
- corroboration or dis-confirmation." In retrospect it would have
- been more precise had he added: "...of the issue raised by
- Belgian Comite Para." If Gauquelin's sample of "champions" data
- was "biased," as Rawlins first suspected, this could not possibly
- be detected by the Zelen-proposed test.
- The same issue of The Humanist carried another article, by
- astronomy professor George O. Abell, which was very skeptical of
- astrology in general. But unlike Rawlins who dismissed the Mars
- effect out-of-hand and "didn't believe that it merited serious
- investigation yet" (FATE: p. 74), Abell wrote that if Gauquelin's
- findings were correct, they were "extremely interesting."
- However, Abell included the following note of caution: "If
- all of Gauquelin's work is re-checked, and his results hold up,
- then it is necessary to repeat the experiment with a new sample,
- say in the United States. If that sample should give the same
- result, then further verification is in order, until it is
- absolutely certain that the effects are real and reproducible.
- That is the way science works; reproducibility of results is
- necessary before fundamental new laws can be inferred." This sage
- advice clearly indicated the limits of what conclusions could be
- drawn, and could not be drawn, from the results of the upcoming
- Zelen test, and even from a complete re-check of Gauquelin's
- original data on European champions, which was not attempted. It
- should be stressed that at the time this first (Zelen) test was
- proposed, CSICOP did not yet exist. Several months later, when it
- was formed (initially under the auspices of the American Humanist
- Assn.), Kurtz became its co-chairman and later its chairman.
- Zelen and Abell were named Fellows, but not to CSICOP's Executive
- Council. In l980, Abell was elected to replace Rawlins on the
- Council.
- The results of this first (Zelen) test were published in the
- Nov./Dec., l977 issue of THE HUMANIST, where the issue first was
- raised, although by this time CSICOP had its own publication.
- Gauquelin and his wife Francoise were given nearly six large-size
- magazine pages to present their findings without censorship.
- Gauquelin reported having difficulties in obtaining data for non-
- champions born within several days of champions in small towns,
- so he said that non-champions birth data had been obtained only
- from the large cities in France and Belgium, The Gauquelins
- reported that these data showed that only l7% of the non-
- champions had been born when Mars was in the two sectors which
- seemed to resolve the issue earlier raised by Belgium's Comite
- Para in favor of the Mars effect.
- The same issue of THE HUMANIST carried an article jointly
- authored by Zelen, Kurtz, and Abell, that began: "Is there a
- 'Mars Effect'? The preceding article by Michel and Francoise
- Gauquelin discusses the experiment proposed by Marvin Zelen and
- its subsequent outcome. Their conclusions come out in favor of
- the existence of a 'Mars effect' related to sports champions. It
- is the purpose of this article to discuss the analysis of the
- data and to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the
- evidence in favor of the 'Mars effect.'"
- The Zelen/Kurtz/Abell article raised some questions about
- the results. For example, that "the 'Mars effect' only appears in
- Paris, not in Belgium or in the rest of France." The article
- concluded: "lf one had a high prior 'belief' that there is a Mars
- effect, then the Gauquelin data would serve confirm this prior
- belief. In the other hand, if the prior belief in the existence
- of a Mars effect was low, then this data may raise the posterior
- belief, but not enough to accept the existence of the Mars
- effect."
- Rawlins charges that publication of this article, following
- the uncensored Gauquelin paper,"commited CSICOP to a cover-up."
- (FATE: p.76) Yet is characteristic of scientific controversy for
- one party to question or challenge another's interpretation of
- the data. And Gauquelin would do so following the second test
- without being accused of a "cover-up" in "sTARBABY."
- In the same issue of THE HUMANIST, in a brief introduction
- written by Kurtz, the first "linkage" with CSICOP occurred. Kurtz
- wrote: "Thus, members of CSICP involved in this inquiry believe
- that the claim that there is a statistical relationship between
- the position of Mars at the time of birth of individuals and the
- incidence of sports champions among them has not been established
- ... to further the cause of scientific inquiry, the committee has
- agreed (with Gauquelin) to make an independent test of the
- alleged Mars effect by a study of sports champions in the United
- States."
- In "sTARBABY," Rawlins charges that the U. S, champions test
- was a "diversion." Clearly the Gauquelins themselves did not view
- it in this light, judging from the concluding statement in their
- article which said: "Let us hope that these positive results may
- induce other scientists to study whether this effect, discovered
- with the European data, appears also with the U.S. data."
- On March 28, 1978, SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER THE RESULTS OF THE
- FIRST TEST WERE PUBLISHED, Rawlins sent Kurtz a copy of a three-
- page memorandum he had prepared a year earlier (March 29, 1977).
- It contained a very technical analysis of the issue raised by
- Comite Para, which prompted Rawlins to conclude that the 22%
- figure reported for European champions was not the result of a
- disproportionate share of births of the general population during
- the early morning hours when Mars often was in one of the two key
- sectors. In this analysis, Rawlins concluded that Gauquelin had
- "made fair allowance for the effect."
- But Rawlins had not written this three-page memo until
- several month AFTER the Zelen test had been proposed in THE
- HUMANIST. Shortly after preparing the analysis, Rawlins had sent
- a copy to Prof. Marcello Truzzi, then editor of CSICOP's
- publication. Truzzi had decided not to publish it but sent a copy
- to Gauquelin. IF the Rawlins analysis of 1977 took account of all
- possible demographic factors -- and there is some disagreement on
- this question -- it was much too technical to be understood by
- persons without expertise in statistics and celestial mechanics.
- When Rawlins finally got around to sending this analysis to
- Kurtz on March 28, 1978, his letter of that date did NOT
- criticize Truzzi or CSICOP for not having published it earlier.
- Rather, Rawlins admitted, "I should not have kept my (Mar. 19,
- 1977) memo..private after all." He did suggest that perhaps it
- might now be published in THE HUMANIST. But by this time Kurtz no
- longer was its editor. More important, the results of the first
- (Zelen) test already had been published several months earlier.
- If, as Rawlins would later charge in"sTARBABY," the
- Zelen/Kurtz/Abell article published several months earlier in THE
- HUMANIST amounted to a "cover- up," Rawlins did not make such an
- accusation to Kurtz when he wrote him April 6, 1978. Instead,
- Rawlins wrote; "I think our best bets now are 1. The main
- European investigation might seek to discover how the Eur. samp
- (of Gauquelin) was (hypothetically) fudged -- check orig. records
- microscopically for some sort of Soal trick. 2. Proceed with the
- U.S, test, where we know we have a clean (unbiased) sample."
- This April 6, 1978, letter clearly shows that while Rawlins
- suspected that Gauquelin had manipulated his European champions
- data ("Soal trick") he found no evidence of wrong-doing by
- Zelen/Kurtz/Abell. On April 26, 1978, in another letter to Kurtz,
- following his visit with Rawlins in San Diego, Rawlins wrote that
- he "was certain" that Gauquelin's original data "was biased, but
- not sure how." Rawlins concluded this letter on a cordial note:
- "Now, wasn't it great visiting sunny, funny, California -- and
- getting to see a real live nut religion launch itself in San
- Diego? ... hope you'll get back this way soon again."
- It was at about this time that CSICOP came under fire for
- Rawlins' actions in another matter. In the summer of 1977,
- Rawlins and Abell had been invited to be panelists in a symposium
- on astrology to be held March 18, 1978 at the University of
- Toronto at which Gauquelin, among others, would participate. The
- invitation came from Dr. Howard Eisenberg on the stationary of
- the University's School of Continuing Studies. Both Rawlins and
- Abel had accepted. Then, in late September, 1977, Eisenberg
- withdrew the invitations on the grounds that "the response from
- potential speakers...has yielded an incredible acceptance rate of
- 100%. This places us in the embarassing position of not being
- able to sponsor all of you," i.e. pay travel expenses and allow
- formal presentations.
- On Feb. 6, 1978, Rawlins wrote to the president of the
- University of Toronto, protesting what he said were "a number of
- oddities" associated with the symposium, including an imbalance
- between the number of astrology supporters and skeptics. The
- Rawlins letter charged that "this conference looks to be a pretty
- phoney confrontation, which will therefore give the irrational
- pseudo-science of astrology an evidentially-unmerited 'academic'
- boost in public credibility..." Rawlins sent a copy of his letter
- to another university official.
- Rawlins' suspicion of a loaded panel may have been
- justified. But the letter of protest was written on CSICOP
- stationery and signed "Dennis Rawlins, Executive Council,
- CSICOP." Another regretable action was a Rawlins telephone call
- late at night to a university astronomy professor, Robert
- Garrison, which gave the impression that Rawlins was speaking in
- behalf of CSICOP. In fact, Rawlins had taken these actions
- without consulting other Council members and without official
- approval to use CSICOP's name. In early April 1978, a copy of the
- Rawlins letter had reached Truzzi, who also had been invited and
- dis-invited to participate in the conference. The Rawlins letter
- claimed that Truzzi had co-authored "an astrology-supporting
- paper...and so rates as a strange sort of skeptic." Truzzi sent
- Kurtz a copy of this Rawlins letter with a note that said: "Since
- Dennis' letter is on Committee stationery, would appear he is
- writing on behalf of the Committee, I trust that will not happen
- again."
- Rawlins' actions were reported in the Canadian magazine
- SCIENCE FORUM July/August 1978, in an article written by Lydia
- Dotto. The article, entitled "Science Confronts 'Pseudo-
- Science'", began; "It was after midnight on a Saturday night when
- University of Toronto astronomer Bob Garrison was awakened by a
- phone call. The caller identified himself as a member of the
- Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
- Paranormal, and according to Garrison, he spent the best part of
- the next hour urging the U of T scientist not to participate in
- the conference on astrology...Dennis Rawlins, a California
- astronomer and science writer and a member of the Committee,
- acknowledged in an interview that he made the call, but denied he
- was trying to talk Garrison out of attending the
- conference...this and other incidents surrounding the conference
- have become something of a cause celebre, particularly since the
- event was cancelled shortly before it was to have taken place in
- mid-March. Predictably, ACCUSATIONS BEGAN TO FLY THAT SCIENTIFIC
- OPPONENTS OF ASTROLOGY WERE ENGAGED IN A CAMPAIGN TO SUPPRESS
- FREEDOM OF SPEECH." (Emphasis added.)
- Indeed they did, much to CSICOP's embarassment. Britain's
- New Scientist magazine, in its June 29, 1978, issue, quoted the
- Canadian magazine in an article that began: "Earlier this year an
- astronomer at the University of Toronto, Dr. Bob Garrison, was
- awakened by a phone call from a member of Committee for the
- Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. The caller
- allegedly spent most of the next hour trying to dissuade Garrison
- from taking part in a conference on astrology."
- This New Scientist account was picked up by FATE magazine,
- which in turn attributed the action to CSICOP rather than to one
- Council member. FATE commented: "If you have difficulty
- understanding their (CSICOP) motives, remember that here is a
- dedicated group of witch-hunters seeking to burn nonbelievers at
- the stake." (How ironic that FATE now is promoting the views of
- the same person whose intemperate earlier actions had provoked
- FATE's harsh criticism.) The same criticism of CSICOP, because of
- Rawlins' actions surfaced again in a feature article in THE
- WASHINGTON POST (Aug. 26, 1979). The article, syndicated and
- published elsewhere, was written by Ted Rockwell who was
- identified as a member of the Parapsychological Association.
- When I learned of the Rawlins incident, I was shocked as
- were others on the Council. But all of us hoped that Council
- members had learned an important lesson from the incident and
- that it would have a maturing effect on Rawlins. Yet before
- another year had passed Rawlins would once again demonstrate his
- inability to distinguish between official CSICOP actions and
- those of its individual members.
- Originally it was expected that the required calculations of
- Mars' position at the time of birth of U.S. champions (for the
- second test) would be performed by Prof. Owen Gingerich of
- Harvard University. But during the summer of 1978 the Harvard
- astronomer was on an extended leave so Kurtz asked Rawlins to
- perform the celestial mechanics computations. Rawlins did so and
- found in sharp contrast to Gauquelin's findings that 22% of the
- European champions were born when Mars was in the two key
- sectors, and compared to the "chance" benchmark figure of 17%,
- only 13.5% of the U.S. champions were born when Mars was in the
- two key sectors. Thus, Rawlins' calculations showed that if Mars
- had any effect on champions, it was a pronounced NEGATIVE effect
- for U.S. athletes.
- On Sept, 18, 1978, Rawlins prepared a four-page report
- describing the procedures he had used in his calculations and a
- summary of the results. But Rawlins could not resist including
- some denigrating charges against Gauquelin. For example:
- "Gauquelin was well known in his teens for his casting of
- horoscopes (a practice he has since disowned)..." The comments
- were both gratuitous and inappropriate.
- Relations between Rawlins and Gauquelin had been strained
- since CSICOP published a long, rambling Rawlins attack
- (Fall/Winter 1977) in which he accused Gauquelin of "misgraphing
- the results of the Belgian Comite Para check on his Mars-athletes
- link..." Gauquelin had responded with the charge that Rawlins had
- distorted and misrepresented the facts in a letter which then was
- scheduled to be published shortly in the Winter 1978 issue of THE
- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. The same issue also would carry a sharp
- rejoinder from Rawlins.
- Thus it is hardly surprising that Kurtz decided that it
- would be best if the upcoming summary report on the results of
- the U.S. champions test should be written by Zelen, Abell and
- himself -- especially since the three of them had jointly
- authored the earlier article and Abell had proposed the U.S.
- test. If Kurtz instead had suggested that the U.S. champions test
- report be jointly authored with Rawlins instead of Abell,
- "sTARBABY" might never have been published. This is evident from
- numerous Rawlins complaints in"sTARBABY." For example, Rawlins
- complains that the day after Kurtz received his Sept. 18, 1978,
- report (with the ad hominem attack on Gauquelin) "Kurtz wrote
- Abell to suggest KZA (Kurtz, Zelen and Abell) confer and prepare
- the test report for publication (EXCLUDING ME)." (Emphasis
- added.) (P.79.)
- Rawlins also complains that Kurtz asked Zelen and Abell "to
- verify the work," i.e. Rawlins' calculations. (P.80.) Because of
- the importance of test, it was good scientific protocol to ask
- other specialists to at least spot-check Rawlins' computations.
- Then Rawlins reveals he was angered because "Abell asked
- countless questions about my academic training." (P. 8O.)
- Inasmuch as Rawlins lists his academic training as being in
- physics rather than astronomy, Abell's questions seem justified.
- Further evidence of Rawlins' wounded ego is his complaint
- that "not only was Abell being invited to the press conference
- (at the upcoming Council in Washington, D.C.), he was to be the
- CSICOP spokesman on astrology in Washington." (P.81) Rawlins said
- he "strongly protested the high-handedness of the choice of Abell
- as the speaker at the annual meeting...I emphasized that CSICOP
- had plenty of astronomers associated with it (Carl Sagan, Bart
- Bok, Edwin Krupp and others), all of them nearer Washington than
- Abell who lived all the way across the country, in the Los
- Angeles area." (In fact, Krupp also lived in Southern California,
- Bok lived Arizona, and Sagan then was working in California on
- his "Cosmos" television series.)
- In "sTARBABY," Rawlins claims that Abell had been invited to
- speak because "Kurtz was trying to suppress my dissenting report
- (of Sept. 18, 1978) and (by not paying my travel fare) to keep me
- from the December Council meeting while inviting to Washington as
- a prominent CSICOP authority the very person whose appointed task
- I HAD MYSELF PERFORMED" (his italics, p. 81). In reality, there
- was no question that Rawlins' Sept, 18, 1978, report, describing
- his analytical procedures, needed to be published. The only
- question was whether it should include the ad hominem attack on
- Gauquelin.
- It was not until approximately one year AFTER the results of
- the Zelen test were published in THE HUMANIST that Rawlins first
- charged the use of "bait-and-switch" tactics--what he calls
- "BS"--had been employed. This allegation was contained in his
- letter of Nov. 2, 1978, to Zelen, with a copy to Kurtz. BUT
- RAWLINS STILL DID NOT CHARGE THAT THIS AMOUNTED TO A "COVER-UP,"
- OR THAT CSICOP WAS INVOLVED. Quite the opposite. A few weeks
- later when the Winter 1978 issue of THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER was
- published, there was a Rawlins response which said: "It SHOULD BE
- CLEARLY UNDERSTOOD THAT CSICP AS A BODY NEVER HAD ANYTHING TO DO
- WITH THE HUMANIST ZELEN TEST 'CHALLENGE'...PUBLISHED BEFORE THE
- COMMITTEE WAS FOUNDED"(Emphasis added.)
- Like most members of CSICOP's Executive Council who had not
- been involved either in the first (Zelen) test or the subsequent
- U.S. champions test, and who were not sufficiently expert in
- celestial mechanics, statistics or astrology to take a prior
- interest, my first exposure to the controversy came during the
- Council meeting in Washington in early December, 1978, when
- Rawlins unleashed a rambling harrangue. Understandably I was
- confused by Rawlins' charge that CSICOP somehow was involved in a
- Zelen test-results cover-up that had occurred more than a year
- before which contradicted his just-published statement in THE
- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER stating that the original Zelen test was NOT a
- CSICOP-sponsored effort.
- Despite my efforts to understand Rawlins' allegations, it
- was not clear to me (and to many other Council members) just what
- it was that he now was claiming had been"covered-up." After three
- years of working with Rawlins I was well aware of his proclivity
- for making harsh, exaggerated charges. Most often these were
- directed against supporters of the para-normal, but sometimes
- also against Council members who disagreed with his proposals for
- intemperate actions against "the believers." For example, Rawlins
- had charged that Truzzi was involved with the "Church of Satan."
- Beyond having difficulty in understanding the specifics of
- Rawlins' charges, I failed to grasp what he thought should be
- done to correct the alleged problem. Because the hour was getting
- late and Council members had to leave to catch flights back home,
- I suggested to Rawlins that he write a memorandum that clearly
- and concisely set forth the basic issues and that he recommend
- appropriate corrective action. In this way Council members could
- better comprehend the matter and consider corrective action if
- such were justified. Rawlins cites this in "sTARBABY" and claims
- he was the only party who had put the issues in writing. BUT HE
- DID NOT SEND COPIES OF SUCH MEMORANDA TO COUNCIL MEMBERS. ONE
- LOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR THIS IS THAT PREVIOUSLY HE DID NOT
- BELIEVE THE MATTER INVOLVED CSICOP OR REQUIRED COUNCIL MEMBERS'
- ATTENTION.
- Rawlins was the last one to leave my apartment (where we had
- been meeting that night) and he continued his earlier harrangue
- but without clarifying the issues. Later, he called me from the
- airport to continue the discussion. Again I asked that he clarify
- the issues for me and other Council members by preparing a
- memorandum. I assured Rawlins that since I had not been involved
- in either of the two tests and since he had recommended my
- election to Council, he could expect me to be at least neutral if
- not sympathetic.
- Rawlins never responded to my request. About six weeks later
- (Jan. 17, 1979), he did circulate a five-page memo to CSICOP
- Fellows and Council members. It was a "baby sTARBABY" which cited
- a number of ALLEGED mistakes that had been made by OTHERS
- involved in the tests and in CSICOP's operations. I replied on
- Jan. 31 saying that his memo was "for me an unintelligible
- jumble." I added: "without meaning to give offense to a friend, I
- once again urge you -- as I did at our meeting here -- to outline
- the problem...then outline your recommendations. And please do
- not assume, as you have done, that all of us follow the G-affair
- as closely as you have done." My letter concluded: "Skip the
- invective...outline the problem clearly, concisely, and offer
- your recommendations."
- Rawlins never responded to this request. Today, following my
- recent investigation, I know why. There was no cover-up, except
- in Rawlins' troubled mind, fed by the fires of a wounded ego and,
- perhaps, by embarassment over his unauthorized intervention in
- the University of Toronto symposium. Rawlins was unable to
- recommend specific corrective action because nothing could have
- saved his wounded ego unless it were possible to turn back the
- clock and to have invited Rawlins to be the CSICOP speaker on
- astrology in Washington and to replace Abell in writing the
- report on the results of the U.S. champions test.
- Readers of "sTARBABY" might easily conclude that Rawlins
- believes that Zelen/Kurtz/Abell, in the Nov/Dec. 1977 issue of
- THE HUMANIST, should have conceded "Gauquelin has won" and
- cancelled plans for the U.S. champions test. Yet had they done
- so, Rawlins would have been outraged because such a concession
- would imply that the Zelen test had proved the Mars effect beyond
- all doubt and this was not true. Had Zelen/Kurtz/Abell even
- contemplated such a concession, I am certain that Rawlins would
- have urged that they be ousted from CSICOP.
- "sTARBABY" reveals that Rawlins imagines many things that
- simply are not true, such as his charge that I was involved in a
- plot to suppress his discussions of the Gauquelin test at the
- 1978 Council meeting. His article implies that Council meetings
- are characterized by attempts to suppress dissenting views. In
- reality one usually hears almost as many different viewpoints as
- there are Council members present. And Kurtz is the most
- unconstraining group chairman I have ever known in the many
- organizations of which I have been a member.
- Even on easily ascertainable matters, Rawlins chooses to
- rely on his vivid imagination or recollections rather than take
- time to check the facts. For example, in "sTARBABY," Rawlins
- claims that he was an "associate editor" of THE SKEPTICAL
- INQUIRER, as well as being a member of its editorial board --
- which he was [not]. Rawlins makes that claim in seven different
- places in his article. One would expect that a person who
- imagines himself to be an associate editor of a publication over
- a period of several years would at least once look at that
- publication's masthead, where its editorial staff is listed. Had
- Rawlins done so he would not have made this spurious claim.
- This is not an error of great consequence. But when I
- pointed it out to him, his response was revealing, especially
- because he accuses others of being unwilling to admit to error
- and of resorting to "cover-up." Rawlins' letter of Sept. 21,
- 1981, explained that at a Council meeting HELD FOUR YEARS EARLIER
- he remembers that "Kurtz called all Ed. Board members 'Associate
- Editors'...I adopted to save syllables." Rawlins tries to justify
- his misstatement of fact on the grounds that he was able to save
- approximately 42 characters in his 75,000-character-long article!
- In "sTARBABY," Rawlins claims that the full-day meeting of
- the Council in Washington was held at the National Press Club
- because this was "the temple of CSICOP's faith." (P. 86.) Had
- Rawlins asked me, I would have informed him that I had selected
- the National Press Club because it was the lowest-cost facility
- in downtown Washington that I could find. But Rawlins decided he
- knew the answer without bothering to investigate. This is neither
- good science nor good journalism.
- In the previously cited Rawlins memorandum of Jan. 17, 1979,
- following the Washington meeting, he wrote that he planned to
- reduce his involvement with CSICOP. He added that there was no
- reason to "hide" CSICOP's problems "from the public. So I may
- inform a neutral, responsible, unsensational member of the press
- re the foregoing." In reality Rawlins already had taken such
- steps at the December Council meeting whose press seminar was
- attended by an experienced journalist with a known empathy for
- some paranormal claims. During the early afternoon Rawlins and
- this journalist left the meeting together and returned together
- several hours later. But this journalist never published anything
- on the matter, possibly because he has as much difficulty in
- understanding Rawlins' charges as did Council members.
- According to "sTARBABY," in mid-1979, Rawlins received a
- letter from Jerome Clark of FATE magazine, expressing an interest
- in learning more about Rawlins' complaints against CSICOP.
- Rawlins claims that shortly afterward "I told the Council I'd be
- open with FATE." I question the truthfulness of his statement
- because Rawlins did not bother to attend the next Council meeting
- in December, 1979, nor have I been able to locate any Rawlins
- letter or memorandum to substantiate this claim.
- "sTARBABY" claims that "as the FATE-story realization set
- in, Council reacted like the White House when it learned that
- John Dean had sat down with the prosecution (during the Watergate
- scandal). (P.91) This claim I know to be false. The prospect of a
- Rawlins article in FATE was never discussed at the 1979 or 1980
- Council meetings, nor by memorandum during the two intervening
- years. Otherwise CSICOP would have prepared a response which it
- could have released immediately following publication of
- "sTARBABY," preventing Rawlins from boasting that failure of
- CSICOP to respond quickly to his many charges indicated an
- inability to do so.
- Returning, chronologically, to the fall of 1979, CSICOP was
- preparing to publish the results of the U.S. champions test in
- the Winter 1979-80 issue of THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Rawlins
- demanded the right to revise and expand his original Sept, 18,
- 1978, paper, and was given that opportunity. Furthermore,
- according to "sTARBABY," Rawlins informed Ken Frazier, editor of
- THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, "that if there were any alterations not
- cleared with me, I wanted a note printed with the paper stating
- that deletions had occurred over the author's protest and that
- the missing portions could be obtained directly from me." (P.
- 92.)
- Frazier (who had been recommended for the position by
- Rawlins himself), acting on the recommendation of Prof. Ray
- Hyman, a Council member who reviewed the Rawlins paper and the
- others, and on Frazier's own long editorial experience, decided
- to delete the sentence referring to Gauquelin's earlier interest
- in traditional astrology. Frazier also opted to delete another
- sentence that read: "In this connection I must also say that,
- given the self piekill upshot (sic) of their European
- (nonchampions) adventure plus their failure to perform
- independently the U.S. study's technical foundations (sector
- position, expectation curve), I find it amusing that ZKA (Zelen,
- Kurtz, Abell) are the main commentators on this test in THE
- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER." Once again Rawlins' wounded-ego had
- manifested itself.
- On Nov, 6, 1979, Rawlins sent a memo to other members of the
- Editorial Board complaining that his article "has been neatly
- censored here and there, so I have asked to add a statement
- saying so and suggesting that readers who wish to consult the
- original version may do so by contacting me. This sentence has
- itself been bowdlerized (so that it reads as if no tampering
- occurred)." Frazier had proposed an alternative sentence, which
- was published at the end of the Rawlins paper, that read:
- "Further commentary on the issues raised in this paper and in
- these notes is available from the author." Rawlins' address also
- was published.
- This is the basis for Rawlins' harsh charges of "censorship"
- against Frazier, the man whom he had so highly recommended for the
- position. If Rawlins' complaint were justified, every working
- journalist could make the same accusations regularly against
- those who edit his/her copy to assure clarity and good taste and
- to avoid libel. In response to Rawlins' charges, Frazier wrote to
- members of the Editorial Board explaining what had transpired.
- Frazier noted, "Dennis seems to believe his position as a member
- of the Editorial Board gives his writings special status exempt
- from normal editorial judgment. None of the rest of you has ever
- suggested this," i.e. demanded privileged treatment. So because
- Rawlins was not given privileged treatment, he charges
- "censorship."
- In the same Nov. 6, 1979, letter charging censorship,
- Rawlins complained that he alone among Council members had not
- been reimbursed for his travel expenses of $230 to the previous
- Council meeting in Washington. Rawlins said that he would need
- $400.00 for travel to attend the upcoming Council meeting in New
- York and added "I won't do that unless all 63O dollars are here
- beforehand." Kurtz promptly sent Rawlins a check for $350 as a
- travel advance and assured him he would be reimbursed for
- previous travel expense as soon as he submitted an expense
- account--which Rawlins had never done (In "sTARBABY," Rawlins
- characterizes this as a "ridiculous excuse" for failure to
- reimburse him earlier.) Rawlins cashed the $350 check but did not
- attend the New York Council meeting, nor did he inform the
- Council that he would not attend. Rawlins never refunded the $120
- difference between $230 he claimed was due him and the $350 he
- received. Yet Rawlins professes to have been shocked and
- surprised when the Council voted unanimously not to reelect
- Rawlins at its New York meeting. (Since Rawlins seems so easily
- shocked and surprised, I suspect he was equally surprised at the
- resignation of Richard M. Nixon.)
- Two months later, Rawlins wrote to Frazier saying he wished
- to resign from the Editorial Board. But he insisted that the
- resignation should not take effect until his statement
- complaining about not being reelected "in absentia" was
- published. This Rawlins statement claimed that he had not been
- reelected solely because he had criticized "CSICOP's conduct
- during ITS FOUR YEAR INVOLVEMENT in testing Gauquelin's neo-
- astrology..." (Emphasis added.)
- Had Frazier opted to publish this grossly inaccurate
- statement, which he did not, readers might well have wondered if
- there were really two different Dennis Rawlins, recalling barely
- a year earlier when a Rawlins letter had been published which
- said: "It should be clearly understood that CSICOP as a body
- never had anything to do with the Humanist Zelen test
- 'challenge'..." When Frazier accepted Rawlins' resignation, this
- prompted Rawlins to complain that he had been removed from the
- Editorial Board without "cause or written notice." Later,
- following a mail ballot of Council members, CSICOP dropped
- Rawlins from its list of Fellows. (The vote against Rawlins was
- 6:1.)
- The foregoing highlights the key issues and actions that
- prompted FATE and Rawlins to charge that CSICOP "bungled their
- major investigation, falsified the results, covered up their
- errors and gave the boot to a colleague who threatened to tell
- the truth." (After my investigation, a re-reading of "sTARBABY"
- gives me the feeling that I am reading a Pravda account
- explaining that the Soviets moved into Afghanistan to help the
- Afghans prevent an invasion by the U.S. Central Intelligence
- Agency.)
- Were it possible to turn back the clock, undoubtedly Kurtz,
- Zelen and Abell would try to be more precise in defining test
- objectives and protocol and would do so in writing. And more time
- would be spent in more carefully phrasing articles dealing with
- such tests. But all CSICOP Council members and Fellows have other
- full-time professions that seriously constrain time available for
- CSICOP efforts.
- Were it possible to turn back the clock, the Council should have
- insisted in the spring of 1978 that Rawlins issue a public
- statement that he had erred in using CSICOP's name in support of
- his personal actions connected with the University of Toronto's
- planned astrology symposium. Failure to do this has resulted in
- an unjustified blot on CSICOP's modus-operandi. Also at that time
- the Council should have developed a policy statement, as it
- recently did, that more clearly delineates activities that
- members perform officially in behalf of CSICOP and those carried
- out as private individuals.
- When a small group of persons met in Buffalo in May, 1976,
- to create CSICOP, their motivation was a concern over the growing
- public acceptance of claims of the paranormal. CSICOP was created
- to provide a counter-balance to those who espouse a variety of
- claims, ranging from UFOs to astrology, from the "Bermuda
- Triangle" to psychic phenomena. With the benefit of experience,
- it was apparent that there was an extreme spectrum of viewpoints
- on the Council. Rawlins was at the "hit-'em-hard" extreme, while
- Truzzi was at the opposite pole and resigned after a couple
- years, partially as a result of behind-the scenes plotting by
- Rawlins which he admits in "sTARBABY." Now Rawlins has departed
- and, in my view, CSICOP is much the better for it.
- CSICOP never has tried to destroy those organizations that
- promote belief in paranormal causes. But individuals in these
- organization have tried to discredit CSICOP, even going so far in
- one instance as to circulate a forged letter.
- FATE magazine made wide distribution of the Rawlins
- "sTARBABY" article in reprint form, together with its press
- release. Prof. R.A. McConnell, University of Pittsburgh, founding
- President of the Parapsychological Association, also distributed
- copies to CSICOP Fellows and Council members, among others. In
- his accompanying letter, McConnell said he believed the "Rawlins
- report is certainly true in broad outline and probably true in
- every detail...He has created a document of importance for the
- history and philosophy of science." McConnell quoted an "unnamed
- scientist" as claiming that "Rawlins has uncovered the biggest
- scandal in the history of rationalism." McConnell characterized
- CSICOP as "an intellectually dishonest enterprise."
- FATE and McConnell have demonstrated the intrinsic flaw in
- the basic approach of those who promote claims of the paranormal
- -- THEIR EAGERNESS TO ACCEPT CLAIMS OF EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS
- WITHOUT RIGOROUS INVESTIGATION. Neither FATE nor McConnell
- contacted CSICOP officials to check out Rawlins' charges. This
- demonstrates why CSICOP is so sorely needed.
- The late President Harry Truman phrased it well: "If you
- can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." CSICOP is "in the
- kitchen" by choice and intends to remain there despite the heat.
- The response of CSICOP's Council and its Fellows to recent events
- shows that the Committee is not an easy victim of heat-
- prostration.
- If the Mars effect, or any other paranormal hypothesis,
- should ever be demonstrated using rigorous scientific procedures,
- there simply is no way in which the small group of individuals
- involved in CSICOP could ever hope to suppress such evidence. Nor
- have I found any CSICOP Council member or Fellow who is so
- foolish as to try.
- (end)
- [In the years following "sTARBABY", Rawlins has continued to
- receive publicity by making sensational charges of
- scientific coverup and fraud. In 1988 he made national
- headlines by renewing an earlier charge he had made before
- CSICOP's founding, this time supposedly supported by a new-
- found document: that Admiral Peary never actually reached
- the North Pole during his famous expedition in 1909, but
- instead fabricated his navigational records to make it
- appear as if he had. A New York Times article of October 13,
- 1988 carries the headline: "Peary's Notes Said to Imply He
- Fell Short of Pole." It begins: "New evidence based on
- navigational notes by Robert E. Peary indicates that the
- Arctic explorer fell short of his goal and deliberately
- faked his claim in 1909 that he was the first person to
- reach the North Pole, according to an analysis by a
- Baltimore astronomer and historian ... Dennis Rawlins, an
- independent scholar who trained as an astronomer and who has
- a long-standing interest in Peary's expedition, said
- yesterday that his analysis of the navigational notes,
- mainly sextant readings of the sun to establish geographic
- position, indicated that Peary knew that he had come no
- closer than 121 miles from the Pole." Officials of the
- National Geographic Society promised to examine Rawlins'
- data, but added "We believe Mr. Rawlins has been too quick
- to cry fake."
- After a three-month investigation of Rawlins' charges, a
- press conference was sponsored by The Navigation Foundation
- at which they dismissed his "sensational claims". As
- reported in a Baltimore Sun story syndicated Feb. 2, 1989,
- "Since October [Natl. Geographic] Society President Gilbert
- M. Grosvenor and others had quietly endured Rawlins' public
- calls for debate and unconditional surrender on the Peary
- issue." The Society was willing to take seriously an
- analysis by the British explorer Wally Herbert, based on
- other evidence, that a navigation error may have caused
- Peary to miss the pole by about 45 miles. "Suggesting that
- Peary might not have reached the Pole is one thing," said
- Grosvenor. "Declaring Peary a fraud is quite another."
- Rawlins held his own "informal press conference" afterwards,
- reports The Sun, in which Rawlins "admitted he had confused
- time readings for chronometer checks with altitudes of the
- sun and had mistaken serial numbers on the chronometers for
- navigational observations." Rawlins conceded, "My
- interpretation has some problems, and I acknowledge that.
- It's fair to say that, if I'm saying Peary was a fraud, I
- think I have not yet met the burden of proof."
- Finally, in December, 1989, a 230-page report commissioned
- by the National Geographic Society was released, concluding
- that Peary actually did reach the Pole. As reported in a
- story on p.1 of the New York Times, Dec. 12, 1989, a new
- analysis of Peary's records by professional navigators
- concluded that Peary's final camp was not more than five
- miles from the Pole. "The report said, there was no evidence
- of fraud and deception in the explorer's records. But one
- critic, Dennis Rawlins, a Baltimore astronomer and
- historian, said he remained convinced, despite the new
- study, that Admiral Peary did not reach his goal and had
- faked his claim."
- Robert Sheaffer, Nov., 1991 ]
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