Pigasus Award

The Pigasus Award is an annual satirical accolade presented by noted skeptic James Randi (Wagg).

History

There were originally five categories of Pigasus Award, with the fifth category being added in 2005:

1. The scientist who said or did the silliest thing relating to parapsychology in the preceding twelve months.
2. The funding organization that supports the most useless parapsychological study during the year.
3. The media outlet that reported as fact the most outrageous paranormal claim.
4. The "psychic" performer who fools the greatest number of people with the least effort in that twelve month period.
5. The most persistent refusal to face reality.

Recipients

1982

• No awards presented.

1983

• No awards presented.

1984

• No awards presented.

1985

• No awards presented.

1986

• No awards presented.

1987

• No awards presented.

1988

• No awards presented.

1989

• No awards presented.

1990

• No awards presented.

1991

• No awards presented.

1992

• No awards presented.

1993

• No awards presented.

1994

• No awards presented.

1995

• No awards presented.

1996

• No awards presented.

2004

1. Dr. Rogerio Lobo
2. United States Air Force Research Laboratory
3. The film "What the #$*! Do We Know?" John of God
4. Sylvia Browne

(Wagg)

2005

1. Brenda Dunne
2. Auckland City Council of Auckland, NZ
3. ABC "Primetime Live" for Airing the special John of God
4. Allison DuBois, NBC-TV show "Medium"

(Wagg)

2006

1. Rupert Sheldrake
2. Templeton Foundation
3. Montel Williams
4. Uri Geller

(Wagg)

2007

1. Michael Behe
2. George Bush's White House
3. Montel Williams
4. Vincent Williams

(Wagg)

2008

1. Dr. Colin Ross
2. The producers of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
3. Late night cable TV stations
4. Jenny McCarthy
5. Kevin Trudaeu

(Plait)

2009

1. Dr. Mehmet Oz
2. Iraq's Interior Ministry
3. The Oprah Winfrey Show
4. Chip Coffey
5. Scientologists

(The JREF)

2010

1. Richard B. Hoover

NASA engineer who announced for the third time in 14 years that he had found evidence of microscopic life in meteorites. Along with "crackpot" Journal of Cosmology (a now-defunct publication founded in 2009), Hoover pitched his ideas to Fox News, who ran the story, convincing many people that NASA had actually discovered extraterrestrial life.

2. CVS/pharmacy

Company who supported the manufacturers of scam "homeopathic" medications, of which they sold up to $870 million a year to U.S. consumers. CVS/pharmacy sells these products right alongside clinical medicines. Executives of the company even promote their own homeopathic medicine Oscillococcinum, which is made by grinding up the liver of a duck and then putting none of it into tiny sugar pills. These plain sugar pills are then sold as a treatment for flu symptoms.

3. Dr. Mehmet Oz

A television personality who promotes quack medical practices. He was the first to win a Pigasus Award two years in a row. Dr. Oz is a Harvard-educated cardiac physician who promotes faith healing and "energy medicine," among other pseudoscientific medical practices. In March 2011, Dr. Oz endorsed "psychic" and previous Pigasus winner John Edward, who pretends to talk to dead people. Oz then suggested that bereaved families should visit such mediums to receive messages from their dead relatives as a form of grief counseling.

4. Peter Popoff

In paid infomercials on BET, Popoff offers "supernatural debt relief" in exchange for offerings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The business is so lucrative that according to recent IRS documents, Popoff took in $23.5 million and then paid himself and his immediate family more than $1 million in one year alone.

5. Andrew Wakefield

The researcher who launched the modern anti-vaccine panic with unfounded statements linking the MMR vaccine with autism. These statements were not founded in any research, even his own. In 2010, The Lancet retracted his paper on the MMR vaccine and in 2011, the British medical journal BMJ called Wakefield's paper an outright fraud, finding "clear evidence of falsification of data" and that "he [Wakefield] sought to exploit the ensuing MMR scare for financial gain," taking more than $674,000 from lawyers who intended to sue vaccine manufacturers. In a 2011 article in NaturalNews, Wakefield called the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Lancet "instruments of a state that I don't really want to be associated with."

("The 5 Worst Promoters of Nonsense")

2011

1. Daryl Bem
2. Syracuse University
3. The Learning Channel
4. Theresa Caputo
5. James Van Praagh

(Dave)

2012

1. Stanislaw Burzynski
2. Pumpkin Hallow Retreat Center
3. The SyFy Network
4. Alex Jones
5. Dr. Mehmet Oz

(Clint)

External Links

• James Randi - Wikipedia
• Pigasus Award - Wikipedia

References

• "The 5 Worst Promoters of Nonsense." James Randi Educational Foundation. James Randi Educational Foundation, 1 Apr. 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
• Clint, Edward. "JREF 2013 Pigasus Awards Announced." Incredulous. Skeptic Ink, 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
• Dave. "2012 Pigasus Awards Announcement Is out Now." Skeptical Science. Skeptical Science, 2 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
• Plait, Phil. "Pigasus Awards for 2008 Announced." James Randi Educational Foundation. James Randi Educational Foundation, 1 Apr. 2009. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
• The JREF. "The 2009 Pigasus Awards." James Randi Educational Foundation. James Randi Educational Foundation, 2 Apr. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
• Wagg, Jeff. "Pigasus Awards." James Randi Educational Foundation. James Randi Educational Foundation, 31 Oct. 2008. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.