WeAreTheKey

Firstly, you'll notice I've created a new forum, and fused together the 'psychic' forum and the 'prediction/prophecy' forum. The redundancy was bothering me. And also, extraterrestrials didn't really fit anywhere.
I thought I'd start it off with this amusing bit of psychological underhandedness on the part of none other than.......
Foxnews! (.com)

Here's what they've done.
Written a really terrible, short news 'story', based on something that happened last July (according to one source), and hype it up as "unexplained" and as a "UFO" with no real questions asked. The almost certain tone of the story implies a serisouness with which you should take this 'UFO' sighting, almost like this is a 'good example' of the evidence FOR ufo's....
Then they immediately follow this with a link to YouTube where you can see VIDEO of this UFO!!
Here's their 'story':

Dramatic film of a UFO buzzing over the British coastline sent experts into orbit Wednesday.

Vacationers spilled out of motor homes and drivers stopped in their tracks as a mysterious cylinder hovered over a campsite in Somerset, southwestern England.
The gleaming grey object can be clearly seen against the cloudless blue sky.
It has no visible sign of power — yet does not appear to be falling to earth.
Local police reported no unusual activity but witnesses were left convinced they had seen an extraterrestrial spectacle.
The unearthly incident happened around 1 p.m. on a sunny day last July, when tourists at a holiday park at Brean, near Burnham-on-Sea, spotted the object.
UFO expert Malcolm Robinson said the object was "totally consistent" with other sightings.


Prepare to be blown away by the latest, greatest evidence for extraterrestrials, the "dramatic" video!:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sWqPYOpO3eE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sWqPYOpO3eE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Wow.
You're impressed right?
For like, 5 seconds of the entire video, there was clearly
something in that sky!!

This immediately and subtlely eviscerates the credibility of anyone who believes in the reality of ufos or the existence of extraterrestrial life. People with little to no knowledge of ufo evidence will be thinking "hmm, ok let's see what evidence there is for this stuff", and be treated to the worst video imagineable that will convince NO ONE.

ESPECIALLY when 2 minutes of investigation, which FoxNews apparently failed to bother with, shows that this "UFO" is almost certainly a complete hoax, and a popular one at that. Behold:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S5BwF95tcxw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S5BwF95tcxw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

A 'false positive' ufo news story by people who don't want you to actually believe. You see how crafty this is of them?

The steady leakage of anti-ufo stories is really irritating. Check out this latest story on the front page of MSN, explaining the Myth of UFO Sightings. It follows the familiar pattern of hyping up the evidence and stories surrounding sightings, then goes into a 'historical' telling of how people have been fooled by objects in the sky since time began, how we have a 'need' for paranormal explanations, blah blah blah.... the usual pat-on-the-head type "explanation" that is applied to anything remotely paranormal or "conspiratorial"....
They use the Stephenville sighting last year as their test case, and then, the bulk of their evidence that it wasn't extraterrestrial comes down to, literally..........the military said otherwise!
See, all you silly little people! People who happen to think that the universe is so unbelievably huge that the odds of other life being out there are very high, and that life would reasonably be interested in visiting Earth considering they are likely millions of years more advanced than we are....you're all idiots!
Even though a purely scientific rational look at the universe makes it insanely unlikely that we are the sole intelligent life, we are led to feel that only the 'uninformed', only the 'nutjobs' the 'wackos', the 'paranoid' would ever actually believe in "aliens".
Such a cliche has built around the concept of extraterrestrial life that it can barely be thought about without the familiar imagery and cheesy stories popping into mind. It's a shame, really. A serious subject cannot be talked about seriously.
There has to be the obligatory reference to "tinfoil caps", which you will certainly find embedded in this "story".
So, all these sightings, no matter how incredible, are all just "secret military flares". Pay no attention, there's nothing to see. Rationality has won the day!
The military said so!
What a relief, if only they could give their comforting, all-knowing answers to all of life's mysteries, the author of this article would be so relieved!


http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/bigg ... gt1=320001

That's a messed up article. The author seems confused at to what point he himself is trying to make. Is he trying to convince the readers that they shouldn't believe in UFOs? Is he trying to convince the readers that he doesn't believe in UFOs? Is he just making himself feel better? Is he sucking up to the military? The article itself demonstrates how utterly nasty the fish smell is regarding the military's response to the flares over Stephensville, yet he takes their explanation as total fact and uses it to discredit the people who saw the lights? What the hell is that about?

My take:
Sometimes stupid people graduate with journalism degrees.

Hahah, I think you nailed it.

And amazingly, those people somehow seem to be the ones getting their stories on the front pages of major news sites. Funny, huh?!

I felt like the seeming "abiguity" of the article was intentional, in that it follows a similar pattern I've seen before.
On channels like The History Channel, and The Discovery Channel, they seem to take glee in "debunking" things, and they do so in almost the same way every time. It's a well-worn psychological trick by now.

FIRST - Dump evidence on the audience for 'authenticity' of the claim. Spend lots of time on this. All the best footage, eyewitness testimony, stories etc... hype it up as big as possible to "suck in" the audience to believe that whatever it is "is real". Make it believable.

THEN - Swoop in with a handful of "experts" who in rapid succession take down all the claims with simple "scientific" explanations. Make you feel like you've been suckered into a "kiddie" minset by some sort of trickery, and now the "adults" are here to set everything straight, and put everything back in order, so you can rest easy and comfortably knowing that everything makes sense again. Phew!!

I've seen show after show use this same model for "debunking" things, from mysterious flying "rods" caught on film, to UFO's, to 9/11 itself....
Sometimes they save the experts until almost the end, so it's super-duper "powerful" when they storm in like intellectual heros and eviscerate the myth you just almost fell for!!

The problem usually is, that since their 'speed' in debunking is part of the trick, they don't actually use much evidence at all, mostly speculation as to what something "could have been", or that "experts agree" that it's this or that, or they attack the type of person that they generalize would believe in such a thing, as in the History Channels '9/11 myth debunking', they spent as much time talking about the "psychology of conspiracy-believing people" as they did 'debunking' the evidence. In fact, their evidence debunking was some of the weakest I have seen. They use "Experts Sounding Certain" in place of actual evidence examination. It's almost sad.

Anyway, this article didn't follow the exact pattern, but pretty closely. It seems to be a favorite of theirs. You know, I always intend to write maybe a paragraph, and end up typing out a freaking essay. Sorry.

Yes, I have suffered the same frustration with many History channel episodes. I used to get excited when they advertized a show about something that I was interested in or something I had some knowledge in and wanted to hear what they had to say. But that doesn't happen anymore, as time and again I felt disappointment at the 7th grade level they target. History/Discovery, etc channels are NOT for people that are even remotely in the know to help enhance their knowledge or induce inciteful discussion, but for people that don't have a clue and need to be "told" in dumbed down, laymans terms what the truth is/was.

Bummer too... since they seem to carry so much 'weight' with people. They're like the "final authority" in a lot of people's minds...
"But they said so on The History Channel!!!