In 1982 the BBC made a programme about metal bending in their series QED. The programme was called Bend! Bend! Bend!. It was originally scheduled to be broadcast as the last programme in the autumn 1982 series but was postponed due to a more topical programme being broadcast in its place. There are two things about the metal bending programme which might interest skeptics.
Two of the psychics in the programme were actually magicians Steve Shaw and Mike Edwards who were taking part in James Randi's Project Alpha. Although there was a rumour that they were Randi's 'plants', there was no firm evidence. (Someone Randi had confided in had 'talked'.) Producer Tony Edwards had heard the rumour and asked Randi about it in an interview. Using 'sleight of tongue' Randi avoided a direct answer, thereby tricking Edwards who would later get his revenge. TV producers and journalists always have the last word!
Two weeks after the programme was supposed to be broadcast Randi, Steve and Mike held a press conference in New York to expose Project Alpha. This enabled QED to alter the programme before it was eventually broadcast to include details of the exposure. We will never know what the difference was in the two programmes. Did the first present Steve and Mike as genuine psychics?
In view of a statement made to QED by one of the scientists who tested them I would not be at all surprised if it had. Dr. Mark Shafer, Deputy Director of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research said in an interview conducted before the exposure "I don't believe they're tricking us, especially based on the research that we have done in the last year where we have exerted as tight a control condition as we could think of even in consultation with magicians to see if the influence holds up, and we have found evidence that it does. Not as strongly under these control conditions, it's as if somehow the extra controls seem to inhibit it, but still an effect persists." This interview was broadcast in the revised programme, much to Shafer's embarrassment, but its inclusion in the first would have had a completely different message.
Towards the end of the broadcast programme, Tony Edwards got his revenge on Randi. Narrator Anthony Clare told viewers "What with planted fake benders, gullible scientists and wolf man disguises around, the truth hasn't got much chance. Indeed, back last summer we had asked Randi quite specifically whether Mike and Steve were plants. His answer then, sounded like a denial."
Randi's response in the programme was "It's absolutely not true. I have certain ethics in this business. I would never, with a scientist, get together to try to deceive somebody or embarrass somebody."
Clare commented "Clearly in the metal bending business the truth isn't easy to come by."
Clearly, in the media, the truth isn't easy to come by. QED had only shown part of Randi's reply, taking it out of context to imply that he had directly denied the question. Tony Edwards' question, and Randi's full reply were:
"Now people have said that they are plants of yours. That's a rumour I have heard. Is that right?"
"I have heard rumours that Philips and I, that is Peter Philips, Peter R. Philips, the scientist out there who got this half a million dollars grant from the MacDonald Aircraft Corporation, and I, and the psychics, were all working together in order to embarrass the Parapsychological Association. It's absolutely not true. I have certain ethics in this business. I would never, with a scientist, get together to try to deceive somebody or embarrass somebody. The only kind of thing I would ever do would be a social experiment, as I have, I did right here for a newspaper in this very city. I went into a newspaper posing as a psychic."
Having given you all of the evidence I leave it to you to decide whether Randi was treated fairly or not.