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Sourcing a Flying SaucerStory
By encinoman
What is a reporter to do with a flying saucer story? So far, no one&;s been able to produce a spaceship or alien for a sit-down, and photos of distant lights and spinning pie plates don&;t cut it either. And as long as a single editor survives the incredible shrinking MSM, they will torpedo any creative journalist&;s effort to call it &;too good to check&;, like the crap cannon.
What you have to do is what we used to do with UFO and ghost stories; find as credible a source as possible in the inevitably-obscure town and build up their credibility. &;According to Mayor Smith, Constable Jones is a twenty-year police officer with an impeccable record. If he says he was anally probed by aliens, I&;m sure it happened.&;
That&;s exactly what the Times did in this UFO story.
Money quote:
&;He was a pilot and seemed very intelligent,&; said Joiner, a 47-year-old former schoolteacher who had been a reporter for 18 months. Allen&;s friends confirmed the account, convincing Joiner the sighting was real.
Of course, the Times has its cake both ways, debunking as well:
Still, it was a strange story and Joiner&;s bosses were concerned. Managing Editor Sara Vanden Berge said she was so anxious that she cried the next morning when she saw &;UFO&; in the headline. Everyone is laughing at us, she thought.
Not to worry. As Steve Coz, my old editor at the National Enquirer put it, &;A good ghost [or UFO] story never hurt anyone.&; And they don&;t sue, either.
Tags: crap-cannon, flying-saucers, Los-Angeles-Times, National-Enquirer, shrinking-mainstream-media, too-good-to-check, UFOs
This entry was posted on June 16, 2008 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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3 Responses to &;Sourcing a Flying SaucerStory&;
margotmarrakesh Says:
June 16, 2008 at 10:40 pm |
These are really good points you&;ve made here, and I learned something about building up a witness&;s credibility. I will remember that for my own writing.
Do you have any thoughts about the UFO reports given out to the public by the Chilean Air Force last year? That seemed like the first reasonable source for a UFO story to me.
Best regards,
Margot in Marrakesh
margotmystic.wordpress.com
encinoman Says:
June 18, 2008 at 10:11 pm |
Margot:
I took a quick scan of the Chilean Air Force stuff on UFOs and I have to see it seems extremely anecdotal. http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case997.htm
For the press to print articles about UFOs being real they would need proof of the order that there is an Empire State building: thousands of people can see it, you can photograph it, and touch it. Until that kind of &;proof&; is available, you will see the press addressing any such claims very skeptically.
MG
LA Times Invents Ford Malibu « Monday Morning Media Quarterback Says:
October 30, 2008 at 6:55 am |
[...] enterprise. No wonder the Times wants to run a series on long-dead gangsters. As with the ghost story my editor at the Enquirer urged me to embellish, they won&;t be [...]
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