Re: TV segment on Roswell hoaxThe four-minute investigati
SkeptInq@aol.com
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 13:24:59 EST
Dear CSICOP List reader,
I thought that I would share with you a message from Skeptical Inquirer editor
Ken Frazier regarding a television news program aired recently in New Mexico.
I think it shows a nice ripple effect of how material published in the
Skeptical Inquirer goes on to influence, and be used, by others.
Barry Karr
CSICOP/Skeptical Inquirer
<<Colleagues:
The four-minute investigative segment about the Roswell crashed-saucer story
by Albuquerque Target 7 investigative reporter Larry Barker on KOAT-TV
Channel 7 in Albuquerque (the ABC affiliate station, seen throughout much of
New Mexico) at 10 p.m. last night (March 1) was very well done.
It was overwhelmingly skeptical. Barker explained and showed the origin of
the Roswell debris. He showed that the Truman MJ12 hoax letter had been
forged. He had Dave Thomas on camera saying it was a forgery and that the
Roswell story is a myth. He had me saying I was saddened to have the name
of Roswell associated with an essentially bogus story and saying I've seen
no evidence to support the claim and that Roswell is a myth made up of
"hoaxes within hoaxes." They had UFO researcher Carl Pflock bluntly
proclaiming "It didn't happen -- no flying saucer crashed at Roswell. "
The believer side was given pugnaciously by Stanton Friedman (interviewed on
tape remotely from his home in New Brunswick, Canada), but each time Barker
countered with contrary evidence or allowed one of us to counter Friedman.
For example, after Friedman tried to claim that "preliminary indications"
are that a paper held by Gen. Ramey in the famous Ft. Worth debris photo
contained words supporting the crashed-saucer story, Barker showed a blow up
of that segment of the photo revealing nothing discernible. He had Dave
Thomas humorously concluding that Friedman would be convinced only "if the
aliens came to him and said, 'We didn't do it.'"
Barker briefly noted that alien autopsy film was now widely discredited as a
hoax and noted that the Penthouse Roswell alien photo was of a dummy from
the Roswell UFO museum. I was identified as Editor of the Skeptical
Inquirer, and they briefly showed a part of SI's May/June 1998 "aliens"
issue on camera. Dave Thomas was identified as a scientist , and "New
Mexicans for Science and Reason" showed on camera. Dave is sorry about how
much good material had to be left out, but I think Barker clearly pared the
story down to essentials to get across a clear "hoax" conclusion. Dave and I
believe this is the first local TV segment we've seen that has treated
Roswell as an outright hoax and myth. And it is especially notable since
Channel 7 News has the largest audience in the state and Barker is widely
known and respected (or feared).
The hoax coverage continues tonight with a segment on the Aztec (N.M.)
crashed-saucer myth.
Dave Thomas worked on these segments with Barker and his producer Charlie
Wollmann over recent months, and I did what I could. You may recall that
this idea was born when Barker, who gets SI, read the July/August 1998 SI
story by Joe Nickell and Matt Nisbet about the top 10 paranormal hoaxes
(Roswell was #1) and decided he'd like to do some segments on prominent
hoaxes in New Mexico.