|
ROBERT SHEAFFERS BOGUS CLAIMS ON
NAT GEOS SECRET HISTORY OF UFOs:
INCOMPETENCE OR DISINFORMATION?
Well-known skeptic Robert Sheaffers performance in Secret History of UFOs, the National Geographic networks latest debunking-disguised-as-documentary, begs the question: At what point does the systematic presentation of half-truths and outright falsehoods about the UFO phenomenon cross the line from incompetent scholarship to intentional disinformation?
As I noted in my last article, given the extremely biased and propagandistic treatment of the UFO subject one consistently finds on Nat Geo, it might reasonably argued that the network has been working behind the scenes with the CIA to debunk the phenomenon.
This is not some paranoid fantasy. Indeed, the history of the agencys covert efforts to spin or suppress UFO-related stories, utilizing its contacts in the news and entertainment media, is now well-documented. The policy resulted from the findings of the CIAs 1953 Robertson Panel, which explicitly recommended using the mass media to debunk UFOs in the interest of national security. Journalist Terry Hansens excellent, scholarly book, The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up, just republished as an e-book, details the agencys decades-long use of the television networks, among other organizations, as tools to disinform the American people about the UFO reality.
<SNIP>
When I recently asked USAF Col. Charles Halt for his assessment of Secret History of UFOs, for which he was interviewed, he replied, Yesterday I received my [courtesy DVD] copy of the National Geographic program and was shocked. The theme is entertain and discredit. I smell one of our [intelligence] agencies. I went back to them and told them I will never cooperate again!
Halt was involved in the now-famous Rendlesham Forest incidents of December 1980, when a UFO landed in the woods on the first night, and another UFO maneuvered near the RAF Bentwaters air base's nuclear Weapons Storage Area (WSA) two nights later, directing laser-like beams down into it.
Halt elaborated by saying, When I did the program for Nat Geo, they promised me it would be accurate and reflect what happened. I explained in detail why it couldn't have been the lighthouse and all about the Air Force Air Traffic Controllers at the Bentwaters tower seeing the object visually and on the scope. I gave them many more details to substantiate the [reality of a UFO] event. They ignored all of this and instead focused on several questionable skeptics.
ufohastings@aol.com
|
