Has Dr. Meldrum's Reputation Or Career Been Damaged By His Involvement With Bigfoot?

[Guest Sasquatch Fan 89]

Reading that article on how just childish those professionals act around him just frustrates me. You know many times in our history science believed in one thing and rejected valid things. Scientists use to believe the world was flat, or the earth was the center of the universe..Even the guy who believed for there to be other planets with life on them other then just Earth died by the hands of people who rejected him. His research is valid and I support him 200%.

Edited October 12, 2011 by Sasquatch Fan 89

[Incorrigible1]

It wasn't scientists that believed the world was flat nor did they believe Earth was the center of the universe. There were no "scientists" in those days.

Scientists fought the dogma of the time and raised mankind from that ignorant thought. Brave men like Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. Those men suffered for daring to voice their convictions.

Don't let's give short shrift to the risks these men faced in speaking for what they believed to be the truth.

Edited October 12, 2011 by Incorrigible1

[beerhunter]

This is a bit off topic but locally here in Nebraska is John C."Jack" Kasher, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who is on T.V. and radio talking about UFOs. He also is the head of our state MUFON chapter. I don't think it has hurt his reputation.

[Guest]

He sells questionable casta on the conference circle, and this doesn't help

He jumps on every new Bigfoot show to come to play "expert", there are NO experts

and it doesn't help that some raise him to some point of infallibility he doesnt deserve.

Now THAT is some spin, nicely done.

I wouldn't say he "sells" anything, I would say that he feels the casts are enough reason for science to give it a good, honest effort.

He "jumps on every new Bigfoot show" because he wants to portray the idea that it's okay for science to show an interest in something that, while quite fantastic and hard to believe, might actually exists.

As far as being raised to a point of infallibility, I don't understand that comment at all. The Bigfoot community is glad to have someone with some credibility involved with the search. He's not infallible by any means, but you could certainly understand what he means to the Bigfoot community.

[Guest]

that is my opinion, just because Meldrum is a SCIENTIST, it doesn't make his word on all things bigfoot law, there are no experts and giving him carte-blanch belief in every opinion he has only hurts the cause. Not every footer is culty but there a population segment that isn't much better than your typical UFO believer, they ARE a cult.

Bigfoot believers would like science to get involved in the search for this animal which we believe (and some KNOW) exists. Dr. Meldrum is a scientist, specializing in something that happens to be a large part of the Bigfoot evidence file. Can you figure it out from there or should I just spell out the fact that we appreciate having someone that has some credibility offering his expertise to the subject? He IS an expert, not on Bigfoot per se, but he IS an expert on something that helps.

As far as a cult, sure there is a segment of the population that is culty. Is that reason to apply that rather offensive label to all of us? It may not have been your intention (yeah right), but you have applied that label to everyone who doesn't agree with you. That says as much about you as it does about our "cult".

[Incorrigible1]

I do, he is the Saint to the Cultish end of the community that doesn't overly value critical thinking and that is why so much of the mystery will never get solved. Meldrum is in it at least partially for the money as his stance has injured his actual Academic career. Its not spin, just inconvenient truth. The cult needs him to sustain their believe, that's not healthy

Thank you so much for coming here and trying to save me from myself. Don't know what I'd do without you.

[Guest LAL]

I'm fairly sure Dr. Meldrum would tend to disagree with habber's assessment of him.

I'm happy to announce the Ignore feature is working - at least some of the time.

[Guest]

I'm happy to announce the Ignore feature is working - at least some of the time.

When did BFF enabled this feature...I'm off to make my list.

[bipedalist]

What a joke!

He's doing EXACTLY what he should be doing...FOLLOWING HIS BLISS!

His reputation with other "scientists" doesn't mean squat because THEY'RE OUT THERE, THEY ARE REAL!

He doesn't need to worry about other's uneducated opinions as they will eat crow over time.

Tirademan

Point well taken TM!

[Guest]

Jeff Meldrum's career and his reputation are different things.

Career-wise, Meldrum is a tenured professor at a major research university in the United States. Given that he's received promotion and tenure at his university, I see very little evidence that his career has suffered from his association with bigfooty things. It is possible (though I am still unclear about this) that Meldrum was passed over for promotion to "full" professor (he's currently, like me, an "associate" professor). If that's the case, there is some possibility that faculty who voted him down see his bigfoot work as an embarrassment to Idaho State University. I don't, however think that is the case, and I offer the following for a bit of perspective.

First, losing out on a promotion to full professor is quite common. Many of us don't make it on our first or even second attempts. This is because the standard of research scholarship is set very high. You can't just have published a few papers, you need to demonstrate that the body of your work has been transformative in your field, such that any scholar in that field knows who you are from your publications and can unequivocally express respect for your contributions (even if they don't agree with some of your work). In a quick check of my own department, 27% of our eligible faculty have not yet been promoted to full professor.

The review of candidates for promotion and tenure decisions is transparent. This is because such decisions open up a department to legal action if the rejected faculty member feels inappropriately judged. Thus, any faculty at Idaho State who objected to Meldrum's bigfoot research could not legitimately use that as criticism to deny a promotion, because we have this precedent of academic freedom. Those faculty would have to make the case that the reason for denying the promotion would have nothing to do with what he was working on, but rather how much "work" (in terms of grants and publications) he had done. Deans are very cautious about this stuff because lawsuits cost money and can sully a university's reputation, so they tend not to deny promotion and tenure unless a good, legitimate case against it has been provided by the faculty on the review committee.

Reputation is another matter, but even this is nuanced in Meldrum's case. Among his scientific colleagues, it looks to me like he enjoys the respect of other physical anthropologists. People cite his scholarly work, and that's probably the best indication that he's well-regarded in his field. With respect to his association with bigfoot, I would say that he's generally not highly regarded by the scientific community. Opinions range from that he's a well-meaning guy who's simply fallen prey to logical fallacies and wishful thinking, to that he's really trying to give this topic a fair shake but has lost his objectivity, to that he's actively engaging in fraud and deception to keep promoting himself as a bigfoot expert so that he can sell books, appear on television, etc.

Jeff Meldrum does enjoy a really unusual level of celebrity among scientists. To illustrate, many rank and file Americans know who he is and what he does from seeing him on popular television programs. In contrast, how many know any of our recent Nobel laureates? (crickets) So there's no question that Jeff Meldrum has a fine reputation among many many people, and enjoys a level of notoriety that only a tiny fraction of scientists (e.g., the Sagans, Tysons, Nyes) ever achieve.

Does he have more critics than most professors? Yes. He also has legions more fans. From where I sit, bigfoot has been good for Jeff Meldrum.

[bipedalist]

Excellent post Sask.----straight shooting if I've ever read it.

[Incorrigible1]

So, someone says someone you don't agree with, cry troll and run away. Selective ignorance isn't your friend.

Or thump your chest, cop an attitude, and belittle people.

[Hairy Man]

We know other planets exist, you have that as established fact. You also have Meldrum hawking plaster casts at conferences, is that worthy of a tentured professor in non BF related sciense?

Mikey? Is that you?

Professors (and others) sell all kinds of stuff at conferences. Ever been to a non-bigfoot conference? The only difference is what is being sold, nothing else.

[Guest]

Now THAT is some spin, nicely done.

I wouldn't say he "sells" anything, I would say that he feels the casts are enough reason for science to give it a good, honest effort.

He "jumps on every new Bigfoot show" because he wants to portray the idea that it's okay for science to show an interest in something that, while quite fantastic and hard to believe, might actually exists.

As far as being raised to a point of infallibility, I don't understand that comment at all. The Bigfoot community is glad to have someone with some credibility involved with the search. He's not infallible by any means, but you could certainly understand what he means to the Bigfoot community.

Thank you most sincerely for your rational response to some of the earlier posts.

You received my point of the day, and well done sir, well done indeed!

[Guest HairyGreek]

Scientists fought the dogma of the time and raised mankind from that ignorant thought. Brave men like Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo. Those men suffered for daring to voice their convictions.

Yes, and all of them devotedly believed in something much more intangible and unbelievable then Bigfoot or any of the things that they went on to prove correct.