VITAMEDIAS
Clonaid, Generating At Least One Kind of Copy: The cloniacs and their space-cadet spokeswoman, Brigitte Boisselier, brought zero evidence to the table, even though they knew their claim would be greeted with fierce skepticism. No picture of the baby. No names for the parents. No DNA samples, no medical records, no nothing. Just the promise of some evidence down the road, to be validated by a former ABC newsman who once did a series that took seriously claims for astrology, ESP and moving objects through thought. And even as television shows have rushed to interview Rael - who insisted that CNN's Connie Chung call him "Your Holiness" - the group keeps making excuses for why the promised DNA tests haven't materialized.
Why not just ignore these characters?
The truth is it's not so easy.
Networks Say Former Editor Tried to Sell Clone 'Exclusive': Most of the world first heard of Clonaid, a company owned by a religious sect whose theology is based on alien cloning, when it announced on Dec. 27 that it had produced the first human clone.
But many news organizations were already familiar with the company's effort: Michael A. Guillen, a former science editor at ABC News who said at the news conference that he would independently test the company's claims, had approached several broadcasters months before to offer exclusive coverage of the cloning, according to several industry executives.
Dr. Guillen's independence from the religious group, the Raëlians, has been questioned since it became known that he was seeking to sell a documentary on the cloning effort for more than $100,000.