Herald-Leader played into conspiracies with front page story about paranormal podcast
The Lexington Herald-Leader usually stands in favor of science education and decries crackpot conspiracy theories that have damaged our nation. The paper’s editors stood by scientists and educators when the Next Generation Science Standards were approved for Kentucky schools in 2013 in spite of irrational opposition. The HL realizes Q’Anon conspiracies are bunk and has alerted citizens to this shoddy thinking’s role in the infamous January 6 insurrection. Furthermore, the HL has routinely relied on medical expertise and corrected the unfounded and deadly claims of anti-vaccine and anti-mask conspiracy mongers. Imagine my surprise when on Aug. 9, the HL published a shameful collection of bunk as a front page story: “Paranormal podcast delves into ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of Kentucky.” The article gave a platform for conspiracy “theorists” who use shoddy reasoning and lack evidence for their bizarre claims.
The article, among other claims, implicated, without evidence, wealthy people in the Somerset area as belonging to a weird cult that worships a “Green Man.” The HL would normally never publish claims based on innuendo, but did so in this case. The evidence for the cult is no better than in 1950 when Joseph McCarthy claimed he had a list of 205 communists in government employment. Yet the Herald Leader published it on the front page. Amazingly, the article quotes the podcaster, after meeting someone who claimed to have been part of a cult, as saying “I still had my doubts, but ultimately the claims correlated with previous rumors I’d heard so I couldn’t ignore them.” How are claims correlating with rumors evidence for anything? What type of standard of evidence is this? How did this get on the front page of a reputable newspaper?
The alleged cult supposedly met in an abandoned coal mine. As a geologist, I challenge the reporter to enter an abandoned coal mine and decide if any sort of activity, nefarious or not, could be accomplished there.
Additionally, the article claims that a deceased businessman was also an escaped Nazi intelligence officer, based on files received from the FBI via a FOIA request. No actual information from the files is cited, only innuendo from a paranormal podcaster. If there was evidence for the person being a Nazi, why wasn’t it quoted? The great journalist Edward R. Murrow once said that accusations are not evidence, but apparently this standard no longer applies. Furthermore, if the deceased person is somehow shown to really be a Nazi, how does that support any claims for the paranormal?
The article ends with a bizarre claim that various paranormal and other events are somehow linked to a magnetic anomaly discovered by the 1979 NASA Magsat Satellite. This satellite was designed by scientists to study the earth’s magnetic field. The podcaster is exploiting the term “anomaly.” A magnetic anomaly is simply a minor variation in the earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic anomalies reflect buried geological structures and the mineral content of the area’s rocks. Attempting to correlate magnetic anomalies to the paranormal is nothing less than exploiting ignorance. Confusingly, the article mentions gravity anomalies as well. One would suspect the podcaster doesn’t know or care that these are different things.
When Rand Paul or Thomas Massie attack vaccinations and masks, the Herald-Leader correctly points out the falsity of their claims. When politicians promote the insane claims of Q’Anon conspiracies, the Herald-Leader correctly notes the unfounded and bizarre nature of the claims. Yet this mindless article was uncritically presented to HL readers. Anti-vaccine and Q’Anon started with tiny followings and have mushroomed due to social media, ignorance, and the public’s lack of critical thinking skills. I hope the HL realizes that seemingly harmless bad reasoning can eventually lead to dangerous and even deadly bad reasoning.
Dan Phelps is president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society and vice president of Kentuckians for Science Education.