On Friday, 5 May 2006, veteran newsman Kevin Broderick mentioned this blog’s article, Phony Ph.D. Ed Gelb Gets $150,000 Long Beach Contract in his influential LA Observed blog:
Lying in Long Beach: The website AntiPolygraph.org says the city of Long Beach has hired Intercept, Inc., a Los Angeles company “headed by celebrity polygrapher Ed Gelb, who fraudulently passes himself off as a Ph.D. Guests who appeared on Gelb’s television show, ‘Lie Detector,’ have reported to AntiPolygraph.org that the ‘tests’ he conducted lasted about 10 minutes from hello to goodbye, which is sub-standard even by the low standards of the polygraph community.”
Jon M. Crowley, who produced, wrote, and directed the Lie Detector television program featuring “Dr.” Ed Gelb, responds in his Hollywood Thoughts blog in a post titled, Lie Detector Expert Labeled a Liar:
Well, gang, I can tell you that as the supervising producer of “Lie Detector,” the folks at antipolygraph.org have their facts, as usual, all wrong.
In addition to being a morally upstanding individual, Ed Gelb never spent less than a TWO HOUR PERIOD with any polygraph subject. There are strict rules that all polygraph administrators must follow as established by a governing board of polygraph experts. Ed Gelb never did less than follow the ‘letter of the law’ of what is considered the highest standards of testing.
So why would Antipolygraph make such a posting? Who would make these spurious claims?
I offer a suggestion:
People found to be lying.
Why wouldn’t someone who appeared on the program — and revealed as a liar — want to continue the charade?
Additionally, I strongly suggest you research — via a google search — a brief background on the (disappointing) polygraph career of Antipolygraph’s moderator.
Sour grapes.
While AntiPolygraph.org has no direct knowledge of what went on during the polygraph sessions held for Crowley’s television show, the fact remains that we have heard from two different guests who appeared on the show that Gelb’s polygraph examinations lasted a total of about ten minutes. As for the assertion that “[t]here are strict rules that all polygraph administrators must follow as established by a governing board of polygraph experts,” it is Crowley who has his facts wrong. The polygraph trade is completely unregulated in the state of California. Anyone can purchase a polygraph instrument, hang out a shingle, and start giving polygraph “tests.” No license is required. There are no rules, no governing board of experts.
Lie Detector guest Bob Smitty reports that his request for a copy of Gelb’s polygraph report so that he could have it independently reviewed was not honored.
And for reasons he would know best, Crowley chooses not to address the central criticism that “Dr.” Ed Gelb obtained his “doctorate” from an unaccredited diploma mill. Instead, Crowley makes an ad hominem attack on AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke. You don’t need to use Google discover his background with the polygraph. See his public statement, “Too Hot of a Potato: A Citizen-Soldier’s Encounter with the Polygraph.” But it is not clear how any of this detracts from the overwhelming evidence that Ed Gelb is not a legitimate Ph.D.