Sometimes hearing that something occurs only “rarely” is less than reassuring: nuclear meltdowns, cockroach sightings at a given restaurant, infidelity. Add to that list police using information from psychics, which, the New York Times reports, “is occasional at best.” The story is a follow-up to Monday’s fake-out news about a mass grave in Texas, an anonymous tip that happened to be from a psychic and also happened to not be true. The Times report features one Jacki Mari (you can also call her “Sherlockjackie”), whose “own psychic powers — she calls it ‘extrasensory intelligence’ — told her that the informant’s tip was spurious, Ms. Mari said, even before the news media frenzy over the search in Texas died down and the spokesman for the sheriff’s department confirmed that no bodies had been found in Hardin.” Oh well, then. Maybe news organizations ought to consider keeping Sherlockjackie on speed dial for fact-checking.
