The Paracast Newsletter
June 13, 2021
www.theparacast.com
"Tic-Tac" UFO Witness Gary Voorhis Jr. Describes His Amazing Encounter in a Return Visit to 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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! 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 an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term subscribers will receive free Amazon gift cards for five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: Choose Your Membership Upgrade
This Week's Episode: Gene and Randall present the return of Gary Voorhis Jr., a firsthand witness to part of the the U.S.S. Nimitz "tic-tac" UFO events during the week of the 14th of November 2004. He was a fire controlman and Aegis Computer/ CEC technician onboard the U.S.S. Princeton. In addition to recounting his experience and background, he provides fascinating insights into the modern sightings that even the U.S. government acknowledges as something real. There will also be comments about the early reports of the work of the Pentagon UAP Task Force and whether it helps fulfill hopes for disclosure. Gary is President and Co-Founder of UAPx.
J. Randall Murphy's Ufology Society International: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
UAPx: UAP Expeditions
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on June 13: "Tic-tac" UFO witness and researcher Gary Voorhis Jr. returns to speak further about his approach to studying the phenomenon. He offers his views about a possible multiverse solution, where we are being visited by entities from another reality or dimension. Gary also talks about his close encounters with reality TV, and even the possibility that the beings behind UFO sightings are made of pure energy; hence can manifest themselves in any form they prefer. Since leaving the military, he has focused on continuing his studies of UFOs, described as "searching for unidentified aerial phenomena through technosignatures in our skies."
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. Check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
The Myth of Being Fair and Balanced
By Gene Steinberg
One of the first things I learned as a budding broadcast journalist at a radio station in Springfield, Vermont years ago was about being fair. I was admonished not to editorialize, and to present both sides of the story in my coverage.
Now when you had to limit a report to maybe 20 or 30 seconds airtime, this wasn’t so easy. But saying that, for example, someone was charged with armed robbery, and that the suspect pleaded not guilty, ought to be sufficient. That was fair enough even though, as a practical matter, almost all defendants claimed they weren’t guilty unless, of course, they took a plea deal.
As most of you know, a certain cable TV network used to bill itself as “fair and balanced,” but that was mostly a promotional stunt. Even under the best of circumstances, being fair is the best approach where possible. After all, you can run a story where one person says the moon is made of green cheese, and the other delivers the more traditional and technically accurate “made of rock and metal” response, and you’d technically be fair and balanced.
It is worse when you quote two politicians on an issue and one gives you what appears to be an opinion, honest or otherwise, and the other appears to repeat clearly nonsensical scripted talking points. Most interviewers don’t stay beyond this unfortunate norm, meaning that nobody is called out for lying or avoiding a topic.
When it comes to covering UFOs, a similar standard might apply in the mainstream media. So someone’s sighting is described and the “debunker du jour” is quoted as saying it was nothing but a mirage or a parallax effect in a video. At least the reporter isn’t giving a value judgement, although it would be more proper, where possible, to fact-check the attempt to explain the sighting away with another so-called expert. That would make three points of view: The witnesses, one positive analysis, one negative analysis.
That takes us to a recent story on the current state of the UFO/UAP matter in the May 10. 2021 issue of The New Yorker entitled, “How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.’s Seriously” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus.
The article is long, a very typical example of the magazine’s famous personalized approach to journalism. So we are told what Dr. Steven Greer was wearing during one of his disclosure presentations some years back, and that reporter Leslie Kean, author of a best-selling UFO book, “is a self-possessed woman with a sensible demeanor and a nimbus of curly graying hair” who “lives alone in a light-filled corner apartment near the northern extreme of Manhattan, where, on the wall behind her desk, there is a framed black-and-white image that looks like a sonogram of a Frisbee.”
Kean is more or less the star of the story and thus receives more of the reporter’s personalized spin than the rest of the cast of characters. We learn, for example, that she is “a descendant of one of the nation’s oldest political dynasties,” is the niece of former two-term New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, and lives on what is described as a “modest family income,” which implies a trust fund of some sort. In other words, she evidently doesn’t have to rely on a regular income to put food on the table, as if that matters.
None of the other participants in this article are described in near as much detail.
Overall, though, the article is reasonably fair, although it’s not at all clear what purpose Greer serves other than to provide an intro into the wackier side of the saucer.
A number of sightings are described, and Lewis-Kraus appoints critic Mick West, who “has a mild, disarming manner,” as his house critic. At least he doesn’t appear to be a rabid debunker, but he manages to get the message across.
So as sightings are described, West sometimes presents the counterpoint, but nowhere does Lewis-Kraus actually bother to vet the criticisms of various cases in any meaningful way. At best we see what appears to be an occasional half-hearted dismissal from Kean.
Kean, however, receives a heavy dose of credit as the creator and a co-author of that series of pieces in The New York Times that blew the lid off a secret Pentagon UFO study, and made it safe to speak positively of the phenomenon.
Now anyone who has followed the highways and byways of the UFO field over the years will be mostly familiar with this stuff sans the personal asides. We did not, for example, need the mini-biography of Leslie Kean or her source of income. She has been a featured guest on The Paracast on several occasions, and I have little doubt of her dedication to the research and her respect for facts.
As a whole, considering that the New Yorker article was clearly written by someone who learned UFO lore on the fly and evidently had no previous acquaintanceship with the phenomenon, I suppose you can call it fair and balanced. I don’t dispute calling on West, someone I’m not familiar with, to be the main source of criticism about some of the sightings. However, it would have been useful to have his claims fact-checked by someone with a less biased approach.
In writing about the now-discontinued Pentagon project that took UFOs into an unexpectedly serious arena, Lewis-Kraus writes “that [it] had begun as a contractor’s investigation into goblins and werewolves, and had been reincarnated under the aegis of a musician best known for an album called ‘Enema of the State,’ [so] AATIP was subject to intense scrutiny.”
The musician being, of course, Tom DeLonge, founder of the rock band Blink 182.
In any case, the article’s concluding paragraphs convey somewhat of a more positive impression: “The government may or may not care about the resolution of the U.F.O. enigma. But, in throwing up its hands and granting that there are things it simply cannot figure out, it has relaxed its grip on the taboo. For many, this has been a comfort.”
Well, I suppose that is progress.
Note: You can read the article online via the following link, though it appears you have to sign up for a free subscription to see it: How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously
Copyright 1999-2021 The Paracast Company. 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!
June 13, 2021
www.theparacast.com
"Tic-Tac" UFO Witness Gary Voorhis Jr. Describes His Amazing Encounter in a Return Visit to 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.
SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! 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 an exclusive podcast, After The Paracast, plus an enhanced version of The Paracast with the network ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device. Flash! For a limited time, you can save up to 40% on your subscription. Long-term subscribers will receive free Amazon gift cards for five-year or lifetime subscriptions. And PayPal now accepts cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in payment, so act now! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: Choose Your Membership Upgrade
This Week's Episode: Gene and Randall present the return of Gary Voorhis Jr., a firsthand witness to part of the the U.S.S. Nimitz "tic-tac" UFO events during the week of the 14th of November 2004. He was a fire controlman and Aegis Computer/ CEC technician onboard the U.S.S. Princeton. In addition to recounting his experience and background, he provides fascinating insights into the modern sightings that even the U.S. government acknowledges as something real. There will also be comments about the early reports of the work of the Pentagon UAP Task Force and whether it helps fulfill hopes for disclosure. Gary is President and Co-Founder of UAPx.
J. Randall Murphy's Ufology Society International: Ufology Society International (USI) - Explore the UFO Phenomenon
UAPx: UAP Expeditions
After The Paracast -- Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers on June 13: "Tic-tac" UFO witness and researcher Gary Voorhis Jr. returns to speak further about his approach to studying the phenomenon. He offers his views about a possible multiverse solution, where we are being visited by entities from another reality or dimension. Gary also talks about his close encounters with reality TV, and even the possibility that the beings behind UFO sightings are made of pure energy; hence can manifest themselves in any form they prefer. Since leaving the military, he has focused on continuing his studies of UFOs, described as "searching for unidentified aerial phenomena through technosignatures in our skies."
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. Check out our new YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOfficialParacastChannel
The Myth of Being Fair and Balanced
By Gene Steinberg
One of the first things I learned as a budding broadcast journalist at a radio station in Springfield, Vermont years ago was about being fair. I was admonished not to editorialize, and to present both sides of the story in my coverage.
Now when you had to limit a report to maybe 20 or 30 seconds airtime, this wasn’t so easy. But saying that, for example, someone was charged with armed robbery, and that the suspect pleaded not guilty, ought to be sufficient. That was fair enough even though, as a practical matter, almost all defendants claimed they weren’t guilty unless, of course, they took a plea deal.
As most of you know, a certain cable TV network used to bill itself as “fair and balanced,” but that was mostly a promotional stunt. Even under the best of circumstances, being fair is the best approach where possible. After all, you can run a story where one person says the moon is made of green cheese, and the other delivers the more traditional and technically accurate “made of rock and metal” response, and you’d technically be fair and balanced.
It is worse when you quote two politicians on an issue and one gives you what appears to be an opinion, honest or otherwise, and the other appears to repeat clearly nonsensical scripted talking points. Most interviewers don’t stay beyond this unfortunate norm, meaning that nobody is called out for lying or avoiding a topic.
When it comes to covering UFOs, a similar standard might apply in the mainstream media. So someone’s sighting is described and the “debunker du jour” is quoted as saying it was nothing but a mirage or a parallax effect in a video. At least the reporter isn’t giving a value judgement, although it would be more proper, where possible, to fact-check the attempt to explain the sighting away with another so-called expert. That would make three points of view: The witnesses, one positive analysis, one negative analysis.
That takes us to a recent story on the current state of the UFO/UAP matter in the May 10. 2021 issue of The New Yorker entitled, “How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.’s Seriously” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus.
The article is long, a very typical example of the magazine’s famous personalized approach to journalism. So we are told what Dr. Steven Greer was wearing during one of his disclosure presentations some years back, and that reporter Leslie Kean, author of a best-selling UFO book, “is a self-possessed woman with a sensible demeanor and a nimbus of curly graying hair” who “lives alone in a light-filled corner apartment near the northern extreme of Manhattan, where, on the wall behind her desk, there is a framed black-and-white image that looks like a sonogram of a Frisbee.”
Kean is more or less the star of the story and thus receives more of the reporter’s personalized spin than the rest of the cast of characters. We learn, for example, that she is “a descendant of one of the nation’s oldest political dynasties,” is the niece of former two-term New Jersey governor Thomas Kean, and lives on what is described as a “modest family income,” which implies a trust fund of some sort. In other words, she evidently doesn’t have to rely on a regular income to put food on the table, as if that matters.
None of the other participants in this article are described in near as much detail.
Overall, though, the article is reasonably fair, although it’s not at all clear what purpose Greer serves other than to provide an intro into the wackier side of the saucer.
A number of sightings are described, and Lewis-Kraus appoints critic Mick West, who “has a mild, disarming manner,” as his house critic. At least he doesn’t appear to be a rabid debunker, but he manages to get the message across.
So as sightings are described, West sometimes presents the counterpoint, but nowhere does Lewis-Kraus actually bother to vet the criticisms of various cases in any meaningful way. At best we see what appears to be an occasional half-hearted dismissal from Kean.
Kean, however, receives a heavy dose of credit as the creator and a co-author of that series of pieces in The New York Times that blew the lid off a secret Pentagon UFO study, and made it safe to speak positively of the phenomenon.
Now anyone who has followed the highways and byways of the UFO field over the years will be mostly familiar with this stuff sans the personal asides. We did not, for example, need the mini-biography of Leslie Kean or her source of income. She has been a featured guest on The Paracast on several occasions, and I have little doubt of her dedication to the research and her respect for facts.
As a whole, considering that the New Yorker article was clearly written by someone who learned UFO lore on the fly and evidently had no previous acquaintanceship with the phenomenon, I suppose you can call it fair and balanced. I don’t dispute calling on West, someone I’m not familiar with, to be the main source of criticism about some of the sightings. However, it would have been useful to have his claims fact-checked by someone with a less biased approach.
In writing about the now-discontinued Pentagon project that took UFOs into an unexpectedly serious arena, Lewis-Kraus writes “that [it] had begun as a contractor’s investigation into goblins and werewolves, and had been reincarnated under the aegis of a musician best known for an album called ‘Enema of the State,’ [so] AATIP was subject to intense scrutiny.”
The musician being, of course, Tom DeLonge, founder of the rock band Blink 182.
In any case, the article’s concluding paragraphs convey somewhat of a more positive impression: “The government may or may not care about the resolution of the U.F.O. enigma. But, in throwing up its hands and granting that there are things it simply cannot figure out, it has relaxed its grip on the taboo. For many, this has been a comfort.”
Well, I suppose that is progress.
Note: You can read the article online via the following link, though it appears you have to sign up for a free subscription to see it: How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously
Copyright 1999-2021 The Paracast Company. 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!