Larry King and the Paranormal

Larry King is widely known for hosting one of the most credulous news programs on television when it comes to questions about the paranormal. He seems to have never met a "softball" question he didn't like and it seems certain that he choke to death on his own words if he even though about making probing, skeptical inquiries into what his guests say. But why?

Leon Jaroff writes for Time Magazine:

[H]is greatest transgressions have involved literally dozens of shows devoted entirely to “psychics” and spiritualists like Sylvia Browne, who claims the gifts of psychically locating the bodies of missing people, predicting the future, and seeing angel wings on some people. (She told King that he had four such wings). Another frequent guest is John Edward, who uses magicians’ “cold reading” and other trick techniques to buffalo audiences into believing that he is a go-between for people wishing to contact deceased loved ones who have “crossed over.”

Does Larry King really believe the nonsense spewed by his far-out guests? When asked that question by Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, King replied, “For the most part, I’m a skeptic, like you.” Then why does King seem so credulous and approving when his guests utter sheer nonsense?

It's not too hard to come up with a plausible answer for that: credulity and gullibility give him ratings; skepticism wouldn't. If he were skeptical, not only might he get fewer viewers, but the high-ratings guests like Edward wouldn't come back. So Larry King evidently leaves his skeptical principles and perspective back in his dressing room before he goes live to millions of viewers. That is not, in my opinion, a very ethical approach to journalism.

Read More:

• Books on Science and Skepticism
• Skepticism & Critical Thinking