I wouldn't characterize the mood of the article as tentative skepticism if by that you mean the author of the article entertains the possibility that the entire incident was a hoaxed figment of Ms. Jacobsen's imagination or an attempt to see what she might get people to believe. It seems after reading the article that the sensations are not in dispute, only the perceptions. So it is unlikely to be a hoax and if it is down to the two possibilities listed by the NYT author, "a dry run for a terrorist attack" or "an innocent sequence of events that some passengers... misinterpreted as a plot to blow up their plane", I don't see how Ms. Jacobsen will be in any trouble. And is there some reason to believe that "Joe Sharkey" is a pseudonym, as suggested by the quotation marks? If it is, he has written a lot of articles for the New York Times under that name.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman Associate Professor of Psychology John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 (479) 524-7295 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.jbu.edu/academics/sbs/rfroman.asp -----Original Message----- From: Paul C. Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 10:58 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Re: Annie Jacobsen Herb Coleman wrote: > It the story that I find suspicious or at least hysterical. My bet is > that when a serious news organization (if there are any left) > investigates we'll find that Ms. Jacoabson was trying her creative hand > to show how people come to believe what they believe or some such excuse. There was an article in the NYTimes yesterday, by a "Joe Sharkey". I'll copy a little of it here: a google search should lead you to the whole thing, I imagine. Tentative skepticism seems to be the mood of the day. If, after this publicity, it turns out to be a hoax, I think Ms. Jacobsen is in some serious trouble. Paul Smith Alverno College Milwaukee What Really Happened on Flight 327? By JOE SHARKEY Published: July 20, 2004 There is no doubt that something out of the ordinary happened on Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on June 29. The plane was met at the airport by squads of federal agents and police responding to radio messages from the pilots about concerns that 14 Middle Eastern male passengers had spent the four-hour flight acting suspiciously. But was the episode a dry run for a terrorist attack, as is now being widely suggested on the Internet and on talk radio, or an aborted terrorist attack? Or was it an innocent sequence of events that some passengers, overcome by anxiety and perhaps ethnic stereotyping, misinterpreted as a plot to blow up their plane? --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
