In 1997, Dr. Guillen enlisted scientists at Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing to help settle a dispute over how many people had attended Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington. By analyzing photographs, the scientists came up with an estimate more than double that of the National Park Service, leading the service to admit it might have undercounted.

Reporter Becomes Actor in Human Clone Drama
…Dr. Guillen's critics say that as a reporter he was too credulous of fantastic pseudoscience claims, citing his earnest news reports about astrology, ESP, healing at a distance, auras and cold fusion — topics dismissed by most scientists as nonsense.

By accepting Clonaid's invitation, Dr. Guillen moves from a reporter who has avidly covered the cloning story for five years to a central participant in the story.

Philip Beuth, a retired ABC executive who hired Dr. Guillen in 1988, said Dr. Guillen enthusiastically explained complex scientific topics in a way people could easily understand. "He's brilliant, absolutely brilliant," Mr. Beuth said.

Mr. Beuth said Dr. Guillen was ideal for the task of the clone tests. "He won't pull any punches," Mr. Beuth said, "nor can he be bought, nor can he be compromised."

Others are more skeptical. In 1998, the James Randi Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to debunk pseudoscience, awarded Dr. Guillen its Pigasus Award, which mockingly honors "the scientist who did the silliest thing related to the occult, supernatural or paranormal."

"He's a very well-educated man, but he's not very smart," Mr. Randi said of Dr. Guillen.

What caught the most criticism was Dr. Guillen's three-part series broadcast on "Good Morning America" in 1997 called "Fringe or Frontier — Science on the Edge." It suggested there might be some scientific basis for astrology, extrasensory powers and moving objects through thought.

In 1997, Dr. Guillen enlisted scientists at Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing to help settle a dispute over how many people had attended Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington. By analyzing photographs, the scientists came up with an estimate more than double that of the National Park Service, leading the service to admit it might have undercounted.

At its news conference Friday, Clonaid said Dr. Guillen would select independent experts to determine whether a girl born to an unidentified 31-year-old American woman is a clone — an exact genetic copy — of her mother.

"Dr. Boisselier has invited me to put her claim to the test," Dr. Guillen said at the news conference, "and I have accepted on behalf of the world press on two conditions, that the invitation be given with no strings attached whatsoever and that the tests be conducted by a group of independent, world-class experts."

In 1997, Dr. Guillen enlisted scientists at Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing to help settle a dispute over how many people had attended Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington. By analyzing photographs, the scientists came up with an estimate more than double that of the National Park Service, leading the service to admit it might have undercounted.

At its news conference Friday, Clonaid said Dr. Guillen would select independent experts to determine whether a girl born to an unidentified 31-year-old American woman is a clone — an exact genetic copy — of her mother.

"Dr. Boisselier has invited me to put her claim to the test," Dr. Guillen said at the news conference, "and I have accepted on behalf of the world press on two conditions, that the invitation be given with no strings attached whatsoever and that the tests be conducted by a group of independent, world-class experts."

A close friend of Dr. Guillen's said he was approaching the verification task as a skeptical scientist, not as an ally of Dr. Boisselier's. "He's not trying to prove this woman right," the friend said. "He's not trying to prove this woman wrong. He's trying to find out, was that baby cloned?"

But Mr. Randi and Dr. Robert L. Park, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and another harsh critic, said they believed Dr. Guillen was predisposed to accept Clonaid's story.

"He likes spooky stories," said Dr. Park, author of "Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness to Fraud." "The last one I saw him on had something to do with whether we have a spirit that is separate from the body. Man, he was eating this stuff up."

Dr. Guillen defended himself in 1998 against Dr. Park's criticisms in a response that said, "My goal is to report accurately and open-mindedly any interesting and credible goings-on within science, be they orthodox or iconoclastic."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/30/national/30REPO.html