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Psychic who had bad tip on ‘dozens’ of bodies wants media to leave her alone

Jim Romenesko by Jim Romenesko Published June 9, 2011 10:50 am Updated June 9, 2011 11:03 am

Houston Chronicle | NPR.org
The 48-year-old woman, who asked the Houston Chronicle to only be identified by her nickname of Angel, says she never wanted any attention and fears the worldwide interest in the case will destroy her life if her name is known. “I’ll be bombarded with media and all that,” she says. “I do not like the spotlight.” On NPR, Mark Memmott said the coverage of “dozens” of bodies being found at a farmhouse “underscores again how we in the news media need to remind ourselves sometimes to slow down and let the facts become more clear before we rush to report.”
> Bob Garfield: Bad tip from psychic had media digging their own grave
> How the story about dismembered bodies in Texas fell apart

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  • Anonymous

    She should have seen this one coming…

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/QXHUG6B22T6CKA3CRQ4EG3UOCM Laurence

    When famous astrologer/psychic Jeane Dixon died, the headline read “Jean Dixon, psychic, dies unexpectedly”.

  • gnomony gnomony

    You play for irony yucks in quoting Angel’s fear of the spotlight (yeah, LOL, I get it…), but you avoid a couple of inconvenient facts in the Chronicle article: 1) Angel says she never mentioned anything about bodies, but rather phoned in a tip about live children, and 2) the Chronicle quotes a LE source saying Angel was truthful about her identity, while the rest of the MSM is reporting that the sheriff’s trying to determine her identity for possible prosecution. When the entire MSM drives off a cliff, wouldn’t it be healthy to ask a few followup questions? Blaming it on a bad tip from a psychic is convenient and funny, but that explanation isn’t sourced any better than the 30 bodies. Does anyone care how egg landed on so many faces, or should we just hurry up and get on with the next weiner roast?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1406854776 Chris A. Winters

    Why does the media take psychics seriously at all? By which I mean quoting them? Someone who claims to see visions of distant locations, hear voices, talk with the dead or determine the future in a deck of cards isn’t your typical definition of a reliable source. One story I covered that went national (involving a girl in a car wreck who survived a week before she was found) had a psychic angle that I ignored, for the most part. But that’s all the radio and TV could talk about. How about, instead of a “vision” of bodies, the police ask the “psychic” how she really knows about the bodies? Did she find them? Were they talking about it at the local hoedown? Did her boyfriend Anton Chigurh tell her where he hid them? A little due diligence is needed. Leave the supernatural for the grocery store book racks, thank you very much.

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