THE PARACAST NEWSLETTER
January 3, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Pop Culture, Myths and Paranormal Research Explored on The Paracast
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.
A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show, and for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast without the network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes and we give free ebooks for long-term subscriptions. A Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. 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: Have we made any progress at all in understanding our paranormal universe? For our first episode of 2016 invited Micah Hanks, of The Gralien Report, for a no-nonsense discussion about pop culture, the effects of myths on our society and other compelling topics. Micah is a writer, researcher, podcaster, lecturer and radio personality whose work addresses a variety of areas, including history, politics, scientific theories and unexplained phenomena. His research has examined a broad variety of subjects over the years, incorporating interest in scientific anomalies, cultural studies, psychology, sci-fi and pop culture, government secrecy, and the prospects of our technological future as a species as influenced by science.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
The Gralien Report: The Gralien Report - The Future Is Now
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on January 3:Caution: This episode is PG-13! Gene and Chris continue the discussion of pop culture, and its influence on our myths. Is it a case of being forced to accept not-so-pleasant news in a safe, comfortable way, the spoonful of sugar concept? Looking ahead to 2016, Gene and Chris present their fearless predictions about the lack of disclosure, and about the possibility that the political oligarchy gaining control in the United States and elsewhere will not change. So will Hilary Clinton get to the bottom of the UFO mystery as she promised in a recent interview? We also celebrate the impending launch of The Paracast Video Channel (Beta). The first video is going up, and we continue to work at improving the presentation and the ease of watching and downloading the files. We also briefly discuss the upcoming International UFO Congress in Arizona, scheduled for February 17-21, 2016, featuring suc h lumina ries as Jacques Vallee, Nick Redfern, and Chris Rutkowski.
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.
Pop Culture and UFOs
By Gene Steinberg
By 2015, the world of reality TV and cable news essentially merged. With real estate mogul and former “Celebrity Apprentice” host Donald Trump dominating the conversation, and the polls, it’s hard to know where “pants on fire” fantasies end and facts begin. The world of mythical pop culture has taken over, and the truth is no longer out there.
The subject of flying saucers long ago descended to reality show treatment, as the subject of many pseudo-documentaries that took real events and turned them into “found footage” adventure films in the spirit of “Paranormal Activity.” With such programs as “Chasing UFOs,” and “Hangar 1,” the latter partly based on cases investigated — or collected — by MUFON, the need for entertainment and ratings overwhelmed the need to discover what was really going on.
Today’s news, such as it is, is filled with clever sound bytes that are supposed to represent the events of the day, or the hour. When the news “bleeds,” it leads. Every nuance, rumored or confirmed, is placed under the microscope.
To many, much of our reality TV culture began with the O.J. Simpson murder trial, in 1995. The former football star hired a team of high-dollar attorneys who, with an ineffective judge in charge, extended the proceedings for long months, all available via live TV feeds. Whenever someone testified, they might be kept on the stand for long days, enduring abuse by one side or the other, before they were allowed to step down and let someone else subject themselves to similar treatment.
Day in and day out, millions of enthralled TV viewers got to see the overwrought exhibition of one of the original reality shows. At the end of the day, despite evidence that most people thought to be cut and dry, O.J. got off. Careers were begun, others were ended. Some of the key figures in the case became best-selling authors and/or high-paid TV commentators.
To observe the 20th anniversary of the trial, there will also be TV documentaries and docudramas, as if anyone wants to relive the whole sorry affair.
Real or fantasy, it’s clear that, regardless of the subject, facts do not seem to matter anymore. When an enterprising and dedicated reporter actually dares to ask some tough questions, he or she is condemned as a member of the “liberal media,” or the “lamestream media” who was put there to embarrass the interview subject. The most blatant example occurred during the CNBC version of the Republican Presidential debate, which occurred in October of 2015. Ignored was the fact that most of the questioners were relatively conservative financial reporters, not wild-eyed radicals.
So it’s no longer safe for a reporter to, well, be a reporter.
In this climate, it’s very difficult for what is regarded as a fringe subject to actually break through in a serious way. But it has almost always been thus with UFOs. From the very earliest days, a human interest story about someone seeing strange things in the sky was presented with a sly smirk, or a sneer. People who actually accept the reality of UFOs, regardless of their actual opinions are, to this very day, usually labeled as “extraterrestrial believers.” UFOs and ET are as one, the same thing. That UFOs stand for “unidentified flying objects,” something that is actually unexplained, is seldom mentioned.
Once again, facts do not matter.
People who have more nuanced views of the subject are usually ignored, or their views are filtered through a prism that has little or no connection with their actual viewpoints. Everything is spun into the “UFOs are alien” sandbox.
Sometimes it gets worse. One year, I observed a curious spin in a report about that year’s International UFO Congress. To the reporter who wrote the story, it was all about UFO abductees coming together to commiserate with one another. While that did apply to some of those who attended, or gave presentations, it was only a small part of the picture. But it was enough for the media to seize on to present an entertaining story.
I suppose this explains Major Donald Keyhoe’s attitude about what he published, or investigated, in the old days. UFOs could only get so close to the witness. Contacts and abductions were no-nos because he knew that the media would usually seize upon the most sensational aspects of the subject in order to make light of it.
He was usually right, although he and his UFO club, NICAP, did investigate the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill, though with some reluctance at first.
One key reason for being gun-shy about UFO cases that were too sensational was the fact that Keyhoe was essentially a lobbyist who advocated for legislative hearings on the subject. He believed in the sanctity of Congress, naively believed that most politicians were essentially honest, and that if they probed the subject fairly, the secrets would be revealed. There would be disclosure.
In the end, there were such hearings in the late 1980s, though not necessarily as the result of anything Keyhoe or NICAP ever did. The end result, the notorious Condon Report, hardly vindicated those who took the subject seriously. The study did give the Air Force the excuse it needed to shutter Project Blue Book.
After all these decades, the situation has only grown worse. As news coverage takes on more of the veneer of entertainment, UFOs are rarely regarded as the subject of serious investigative journalism. There are a few reporters who try to break through, but seldom with a successful result. To reduce budgets, many news organizations, particularly big city newspapers and TV networks, have sent their investigative teams out to pasture.
It’s probably safe to say that the Washington Post’s exposure of the Watergate burglary in the 1970s would have no equal in the 21st century. Woodward and Bernstein are still around. Books are still being written, but works about alleged political scandals are often prepared by political operatives with axes to grind.
Yes, politicians are still indicted from time to time for one crime or another, but a lot of that often comes out of opposition research, or as the result of an offense so blatant that law enforcement authorities are forced to investigate.
So if you believe that, in this culture, there can ever be a true disclosure of possible UFO reality, dream on. The media only looks at UFOs as a source for entertainment, ratings and circulation. Does that serve the interests of those who hold the secret? Possibly, if there’s actually a secret that’s being held, or if anyone in authority even cares.
Sure, Hilary Clinton is promising to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. That’s the sort of empty promise some of her predecessors made over the years. But you know for sure she will not want to become the flying saucer candidate. Remember how Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s stuttering campaign was derailed when he revealed that he once saw a UFO. No candidate who hopes to win will take that risk again, or even say much of anything about the subject beyond making an empty promise to look into it.
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!
January 3, 2016
www.theparacast.com
Pop Culture, Myths and Paranormal Research Explored on The Paracast
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.
A PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! We have another radio show, and for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to After The Paracast, plus a higher-quality version of The Paracast without the network ads, and chat rooms when you sign up for The Paracast+. NEW! We’ve added an RSS feed for fast updates of the latest episodes and we give free ebooks for long-term subscriptions. A Paracast+ video channel is coming soon. 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: Have we made any progress at all in understanding our paranormal universe? For our first episode of 2016 invited Micah Hanks, of The Gralien Report, for a no-nonsense discussion about pop culture, the effects of myths on our society and other compelling topics. Micah is a writer, researcher, podcaster, lecturer and radio personality whose work addresses a variety of areas, including history, politics, scientific theories and unexplained phenomena. His research has examined a broad variety of subjects over the years, incorporating interest in scientific anomalies, cultural studies, psychology, sci-fi and pop culture, government secrecy, and the prospects of our technological future as a species as influenced by science.
Chris O’Brien’s Site: Our Strange Planet
The Gralien Report: The Gralien Report - The Future Is Now
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively to Paracast+ subscribers on January 3:Caution: This episode is PG-13! Gene and Chris continue the discussion of pop culture, and its influence on our myths. Is it a case of being forced to accept not-so-pleasant news in a safe, comfortable way, the spoonful of sugar concept? Looking ahead to 2016, Gene and Chris present their fearless predictions about the lack of disclosure, and about the possibility that the political oligarchy gaining control in the United States and elsewhere will not change. So will Hilary Clinton get to the bottom of the UFO mystery as she promised in a recent interview? We also celebrate the impending launch of The Paracast Video Channel (Beta). The first video is going up, and we continue to work at improving the presentation and the ease of watching and downloading the files. We also briefly discuss the upcoming International UFO Congress in Arizona, scheduled for February 17-21, 2016, featuring suc h lumina ries as Jacques Vallee, Nick Redfern, and Chris Rutkowski.
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.
Pop Culture and UFOs
By Gene Steinberg
By 2015, the world of reality TV and cable news essentially merged. With real estate mogul and former “Celebrity Apprentice” host Donald Trump dominating the conversation, and the polls, it’s hard to know where “pants on fire” fantasies end and facts begin. The world of mythical pop culture has taken over, and the truth is no longer out there.
The subject of flying saucers long ago descended to reality show treatment, as the subject of many pseudo-documentaries that took real events and turned them into “found footage” adventure films in the spirit of “Paranormal Activity.” With such programs as “Chasing UFOs,” and “Hangar 1,” the latter partly based on cases investigated — or collected — by MUFON, the need for entertainment and ratings overwhelmed the need to discover what was really going on.
Today’s news, such as it is, is filled with clever sound bytes that are supposed to represent the events of the day, or the hour. When the news “bleeds,” it leads. Every nuance, rumored or confirmed, is placed under the microscope.
To many, much of our reality TV culture began with the O.J. Simpson murder trial, in 1995. The former football star hired a team of high-dollar attorneys who, with an ineffective judge in charge, extended the proceedings for long months, all available via live TV feeds. Whenever someone testified, they might be kept on the stand for long days, enduring abuse by one side or the other, before they were allowed to step down and let someone else subject themselves to similar treatment.
Day in and day out, millions of enthralled TV viewers got to see the overwrought exhibition of one of the original reality shows. At the end of the day, despite evidence that most people thought to be cut and dry, O.J. got off. Careers were begun, others were ended. Some of the key figures in the case became best-selling authors and/or high-paid TV commentators.
To observe the 20th anniversary of the trial, there will also be TV documentaries and docudramas, as if anyone wants to relive the whole sorry affair.
Real or fantasy, it’s clear that, regardless of the subject, facts do not seem to matter anymore. When an enterprising and dedicated reporter actually dares to ask some tough questions, he or she is condemned as a member of the “liberal media,” or the “lamestream media” who was put there to embarrass the interview subject. The most blatant example occurred during the CNBC version of the Republican Presidential debate, which occurred in October of 2015. Ignored was the fact that most of the questioners were relatively conservative financial reporters, not wild-eyed radicals.
So it’s no longer safe for a reporter to, well, be a reporter.
In this climate, it’s very difficult for what is regarded as a fringe subject to actually break through in a serious way. But it has almost always been thus with UFOs. From the very earliest days, a human interest story about someone seeing strange things in the sky was presented with a sly smirk, or a sneer. People who actually accept the reality of UFOs, regardless of their actual opinions are, to this very day, usually labeled as “extraterrestrial believers.” UFOs and ET are as one, the same thing. That UFOs stand for “unidentified flying objects,” something that is actually unexplained, is seldom mentioned.
Once again, facts do not matter.
People who have more nuanced views of the subject are usually ignored, or their views are filtered through a prism that has little or no connection with their actual viewpoints. Everything is spun into the “UFOs are alien” sandbox.
Sometimes it gets worse. One year, I observed a curious spin in a report about that year’s International UFO Congress. To the reporter who wrote the story, it was all about UFO abductees coming together to commiserate with one another. While that did apply to some of those who attended, or gave presentations, it was only a small part of the picture. But it was enough for the media to seize on to present an entertaining story.
I suppose this explains Major Donald Keyhoe’s attitude about what he published, or investigated, in the old days. UFOs could only get so close to the witness. Contacts and abductions were no-nos because he knew that the media would usually seize upon the most sensational aspects of the subject in order to make light of it.
He was usually right, although he and his UFO club, NICAP, did investigate the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill, though with some reluctance at first.
One key reason for being gun-shy about UFO cases that were too sensational was the fact that Keyhoe was essentially a lobbyist who advocated for legislative hearings on the subject. He believed in the sanctity of Congress, naively believed that most politicians were essentially honest, and that if they probed the subject fairly, the secrets would be revealed. There would be disclosure.
In the end, there were such hearings in the late 1980s, though not necessarily as the result of anything Keyhoe or NICAP ever did. The end result, the notorious Condon Report, hardly vindicated those who took the subject seriously. The study did give the Air Force the excuse it needed to shutter Project Blue Book.
After all these decades, the situation has only grown worse. As news coverage takes on more of the veneer of entertainment, UFOs are rarely regarded as the subject of serious investigative journalism. There are a few reporters who try to break through, but seldom with a successful result. To reduce budgets, many news organizations, particularly big city newspapers and TV networks, have sent their investigative teams out to pasture.
It’s probably safe to say that the Washington Post’s exposure of the Watergate burglary in the 1970s would have no equal in the 21st century. Woodward and Bernstein are still around. Books are still being written, but works about alleged political scandals are often prepared by political operatives with axes to grind.
Yes, politicians are still indicted from time to time for one crime or another, but a lot of that often comes out of opposition research, or as the result of an offense so blatant that law enforcement authorities are forced to investigate.
So if you believe that, in this culture, there can ever be a true disclosure of possible UFO reality, dream on. The media only looks at UFOs as a source for entertainment, ratings and circulation. Does that serve the interests of those who hold the secret? Possibly, if there’s actually a secret that’s being held, or if anyone in authority even cares.
Sure, Hilary Clinton is promising to get to the bottom of the UFO mystery. That’s the sort of empty promise some of her predecessors made over the years. But you know for sure she will not want to become the flying saucer candidate. Remember how Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s stuttering campaign was derailed when he revealed that he once saw a UFO. No candidate who hopes to win will take that risk again, or even say much of anything about the subject beyond making an empty promise to look into it.
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!
