THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
August 7, 2016
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Presents a Listener Roundtable with Sue and Ufology, Featuring Guest Co-host Micah Hanks
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Micah Hanks, of The Gralien Report, present a listener roundtable featuring Sue and Ufology, two of our long-time Paracast forum regulars. The wide-ranging discussion includes the touchy issue of politics and UFOs, and why the two are often considered together, personal experiences with possible MIBs, Micah’s extensive research into the legend of the Brown Mountain lights in the western part of North Carolina, and the controversy surrounding the Travis Walton contact case. The back-and-forth about the Walton case will cover the contradictory results of lie detector tests he took, and why some researchers have long been skeptical about the case
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Micah Hanks’ Gralien Report: http://www.gralienreport.com
Ufology’s Site: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on August 7: The regular episode of The Paracast continues this week as Gene and Chris present Sue and Ufology. Sue asks Ufology why Canadians are so civil, so polite and tolerant, as the crew explains why they won’t discuss politics, discussing politics and won’t touch on political issues. Maybe. The discussion moves to the news media, the impact of media consolidation in the U.S. as Ufology explains how this is all set up in Canada, where you also have CBC, a government network running side by side with private networks. The talk moves to the gangs who stalk posters on Wikipedia, repeatedly changing posts with which they disagree. Gene recalls the infamous 1958 episode where Major Donald Keyhoe was cut off when he deviated from the script during an episode of “Armstrong Circle Theater” on CBS-TV. Gene and Chris briefly discuss the sometimes irascible Richard Hall, a note d UFO researcher who worked as office manager for NICAP and, once, told Gene that he wasn’t welcome at NICAP headquarters. Sue explains how Chris inspired her to become a vegetarian.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
The Endless Debates About No-No Topics
By Gene Steinberg
Paranormal writer and broadcaster Micah Hanks will tell listeners to The Paracast on this weekend’s episode that the subject of politics receives a 50/50 reaction from his listeners. This is the sort of polarized attitude that makes it difficult to touch upon topics that may have an important connection to our paranormal universe.
We usually encounter a similar situation. On last week’s episode of our premium podcast, After The Paracast, Chris and I talked about the possible relationship between major societal upheavals, often political, and the onset of a rash of paranormal and UFO reports.
But it wasn’t just politics. The discussion included the common misconceptions about what some call the “liberal media,” which is often used as a pejorative by some on the other side of the political isle as an excuse to blame what they perceive to be a bias against them.
I worked in broadcast news up through the 1970s, so I believe I have a perspective of how things went down in those days.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media is highly consolidated, particularly when it comes to radio and TV stations, and TV networks. Due to the FCC’s previous limits on ownership, most stations were once owned by local or regional companies. Their licenses required them to act in the public interest, particularly as it concerned their service area.
In those days, in order to preserve one’s hard-won FCC license, you had to demonstrate how you fulfilled the requirement to act in the public interest in order to have your license renewed. Even though it was rare for a license not to be renewed — it required egregious or criminal behavior against the interests of the public — you had to place a public record of your renewal request at your office or another location, and make it available to any citizen who wanted to see it.
Beginning in the 1980s, the FCC’s limits on ownership were severely relaxed. Over the decades, that resulted in media consolidation as local broadcasters sold out to large chains in exchange for lots of upfront cash. In a reasonably large city, such as Phoenix, you’ll find that all but a few radio stations, even though they superficially compete with one another, are owned by the same companies.
What this means is that many of the broadcasts you hear are syndicated even if they are presented as a local show. When local disk jockeys are heard, the actual playlist they use is often prepared by a regional or national program director. There may or may not be small variations to suit the needs of the local audience
When it comes to news, it’s a huge profit center. At one time, news was meant as a public service intended to support the licensee’s requirements to act in that respect. But no more.
You might date the acceleration in the decline of TV news, or its use as a source of entertainment and profit, to ABC’s decision to name the head of its sports division, Roone Arledge, to lead the news division beginning in 1977. He gave the flagging division the veneer and gloss of entertainment, and thus vaulted ABC News into a top position in the industry by the 1980s.
And don’t forget the rise of the “happy talk” local TV anchors.
To the broadcast industry, the paranormal is meant strictly as a source of entertainment, ratings, and ad revenue. Except for a handful of dedicated broadcasters, such as George Knapp, an anchor at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, who actually care about treating these subjects factually, it’s hard to take the coverage seriously.
As regular listeners know, co-host Chris O’Brien has frequently complained about how a few TV interviewers have treated him. His comments are sometimes taken out of context, where his words refer to something that was never intended in the original interview. These incidents were not due to simple editing mistakes, but to deliberate efforts on the part of the producers to manipulate the show in a way that suited their agendas.
Frustrating!
But this means is that it’s really hard to take any TV show about the paranormal seriously. Other than straight news coverage, we’re talking about programming that has to fill 43 to 44 minutes between the commercials on a one-hour show. So long as the ratings are satisfactory, facts be damned!
A pipedream of some UFO believers is that the government will some day disclose what the believers think they know, that the flying disks are spaceships from other worlds. And maybe they are indeed abducting humans for genetic testing and other purposes, but that would hardly demonstrate a benevolent or even benign intent towards us.
Regardless, the politicians are hardly going to reveal something that might impact their standing, the standing of the political party they represent, or their ability to be reelected. In large part, political office holders in the U.S. are beholden to the large corporations and wealthy individuals that financed their campaigns. How are the needs of regular people factored into that equation? Well, perhaps they play lip service to their constituents by making a few empty promises about helping regular people in order to make sure they win at the ballot box.
Over the decades, candidates for President of the United States have promised to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. While Donald Trump has yet to mention UFOs or flying saucers in his speeches or tweets, Hillary Clinton has promised to look into the matter. It doesn’t hurt that her campaign chairman, John Podesta, has a long-standing interest in the phenomenon. But even if she is elected, the chances that she will actually do something — aside from a few empty promises in a press conference — are probably little to none.
It is always thus.
But if you believe there is a Silence Group within a government, or some other group or agency charged with keeping the facts about UFOs a secret, you can hardly ignore the political implications. True, trying to guess at what they know, or looking for hints in a sighting report or someone’s statements, might be entertaining for some. But it hardly gets you to the bottom of the mystery.
I realize many of you would prefer to concentrate on the data itself in search of evidence that might take us all a step closer to some answers. But if governments have secret information that provides a solution to what’s happening, or points in that direction, isn’t the public entitled to know? The answer is immersed in politics. You can’t run away from it.
And depending on the news media to serve as the public’s watchdog of government activities may be a wasted effort. There are too many agendas afoot. More often that not, coverage is all about ginned up controversies and unsupported rumors, because they are sensational and guaranteed to get clicks or ratings. It hardly takes us any closer to understanding what is really happening in this crazy world.
Or maybe when we are told to look in one direction, we should just look elsewhere.
Copyright 1999-2016 The Paracast LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
August 7, 2016
www.theparacast.com
The Paracast Presents a Listener Roundtable with Sue and Ufology, Featuring Guest Co-host Micah Hanks
The Paracast is heard Sundays from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM Central Time on the GCN Radio Network and affiliates around the USA, the Boost Radio Network, the IRN Internet Radio Network, and online across the globe via download and on-demand streaming.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast free of network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes, the new Paracast+ Video Channel, episode transcripts, Special Features and Classic Episodes. Check out our new “Lifetime” membership! For more information about our premium package, please visit: Introducing The Paracast+ | The Paracast — The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio.
This Week's Episode: Gene and guest co-host Micah Hanks, of The Gralien Report, present a listener roundtable featuring Sue and Ufology, two of our long-time Paracast forum regulars. The wide-ranging discussion includes the touchy issue of politics and UFOs, and why the two are often considered together, personal experiences with possible MIBs, Micah’s extensive research into the legend of the Brown Mountain lights in the western part of North Carolina, and the controversy surrounding the Travis Walton contact case. The back-and-forth about the Walton case will cover the contradictory results of lie detector tests he took, and why some researchers have long been skeptical about the case
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
Micah Hanks’ Gralien Report: http://www.gralienreport.com
Ufology’s Site: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on August 7: The regular episode of The Paracast continues this week as Gene and Chris present Sue and Ufology. Sue asks Ufology why Canadians are so civil, so polite and tolerant, as the crew explains why they won’t discuss politics, discussing politics and won’t touch on political issues. Maybe. The discussion moves to the news media, the impact of media consolidation in the U.S. as Ufology explains how this is all set up in Canada, where you also have CBC, a government network running side by side with private networks. The talk moves to the gangs who stalk posters on Wikipedia, repeatedly changing posts with which they disagree. Gene recalls the infamous 1958 episode where Major Donald Keyhoe was cut off when he deviated from the script during an episode of “Armstrong Circle Theater” on CBS-TV. Gene and Chris briefly discuss the sometimes irascible Richard Hall, a note d UFO researcher who worked as office manager for NICAP and, once, told Gene that he wasn’t welcome at NICAP headquarters. Sue explains how Chris inspired her to become a vegetarian.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
The Endless Debates About No-No Topics
By Gene Steinberg
Paranormal writer and broadcaster Micah Hanks will tell listeners to The Paracast on this weekend’s episode that the subject of politics receives a 50/50 reaction from his listeners. This is the sort of polarized attitude that makes it difficult to touch upon topics that may have an important connection to our paranormal universe.
We usually encounter a similar situation. On last week’s episode of our premium podcast, After The Paracast, Chris and I talked about the possible relationship between major societal upheavals, often political, and the onset of a rash of paranormal and UFO reports.
But it wasn’t just politics. The discussion included the common misconceptions about what some call the “liberal media,” which is often used as a pejorative by some on the other side of the political isle as an excuse to blame what they perceive to be a bias against them.
I worked in broadcast news up through the 1970s, so I believe I have a perspective of how things went down in those days.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media is highly consolidated, particularly when it comes to radio and TV stations, and TV networks. Due to the FCC’s previous limits on ownership, most stations were once owned by local or regional companies. Their licenses required them to act in the public interest, particularly as it concerned their service area.
In those days, in order to preserve one’s hard-won FCC license, you had to demonstrate how you fulfilled the requirement to act in the public interest in order to have your license renewed. Even though it was rare for a license not to be renewed — it required egregious or criminal behavior against the interests of the public — you had to place a public record of your renewal request at your office or another location, and make it available to any citizen who wanted to see it.
Beginning in the 1980s, the FCC’s limits on ownership were severely relaxed. Over the decades, that resulted in media consolidation as local broadcasters sold out to large chains in exchange for lots of upfront cash. In a reasonably large city, such as Phoenix, you’ll find that all but a few radio stations, even though they superficially compete with one another, are owned by the same companies.
What this means is that many of the broadcasts you hear are syndicated even if they are presented as a local show. When local disk jockeys are heard, the actual playlist they use is often prepared by a regional or national program director. There may or may not be small variations to suit the needs of the local audience
When it comes to news, it’s a huge profit center. At one time, news was meant as a public service intended to support the licensee’s requirements to act in that respect. But no more.
You might date the acceleration in the decline of TV news, or its use as a source of entertainment and profit, to ABC’s decision to name the head of its sports division, Roone Arledge, to lead the news division beginning in 1977. He gave the flagging division the veneer and gloss of entertainment, and thus vaulted ABC News into a top position in the industry by the 1980s.
And don’t forget the rise of the “happy talk” local TV anchors.
To the broadcast industry, the paranormal is meant strictly as a source of entertainment, ratings, and ad revenue. Except for a handful of dedicated broadcasters, such as George Knapp, an anchor at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, who actually care about treating these subjects factually, it’s hard to take the coverage seriously.
As regular listeners know, co-host Chris O’Brien has frequently complained about how a few TV interviewers have treated him. His comments are sometimes taken out of context, where his words refer to something that was never intended in the original interview. These incidents were not due to simple editing mistakes, but to deliberate efforts on the part of the producers to manipulate the show in a way that suited their agendas.
Frustrating!
But this means is that it’s really hard to take any TV show about the paranormal seriously. Other than straight news coverage, we’re talking about programming that has to fill 43 to 44 minutes between the commercials on a one-hour show. So long as the ratings are satisfactory, facts be damned!
A pipedream of some UFO believers is that the government will some day disclose what the believers think they know, that the flying disks are spaceships from other worlds. And maybe they are indeed abducting humans for genetic testing and other purposes, but that would hardly demonstrate a benevolent or even benign intent towards us.
Regardless, the politicians are hardly going to reveal something that might impact their standing, the standing of the political party they represent, or their ability to be reelected. In large part, political office holders in the U.S. are beholden to the large corporations and wealthy individuals that financed their campaigns. How are the needs of regular people factored into that equation? Well, perhaps they play lip service to their constituents by making a few empty promises about helping regular people in order to make sure they win at the ballot box.
Over the decades, candidates for President of the United States have promised to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. While Donald Trump has yet to mention UFOs or flying saucers in his speeches or tweets, Hillary Clinton has promised to look into the matter. It doesn’t hurt that her campaign chairman, John Podesta, has a long-standing interest in the phenomenon. But even if she is elected, the chances that she will actually do something — aside from a few empty promises in a press conference — are probably little to none.
It is always thus.
But if you believe there is a Silence Group within a government, or some other group or agency charged with keeping the facts about UFOs a secret, you can hardly ignore the political implications. True, trying to guess at what they know, or looking for hints in a sighting report or someone’s statements, might be entertaining for some. But it hardly gets you to the bottom of the mystery.
I realize many of you would prefer to concentrate on the data itself in search of evidence that might take us all a step closer to some answers. But if governments have secret information that provides a solution to what’s happening, or points in that direction, isn’t the public entitled to know? The answer is immersed in politics. You can’t run away from it.
And depending on the news media to serve as the public’s watchdog of government activities may be a wasted effort. There are too many agendas afoot. More often that not, coverage is all about ginned up controversies and unsupported rumors, because they are sensational and guaranteed to get clicks or ratings. It hardly takes us any closer to understanding what is really happening in this crazy world.
Or maybe when we are told to look in one direction, we should just look elsewhere.
Copyright 1999-2016 The Paracast LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!