Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Facts and Stephenville and the Other Story

This fluff piece from the Washington Post: New UFO Sighting Reported In Stephenville Texas Fired Reporter Angelia Joiner Sparks Conspiracy Theories, by Emil Steiner is interesting for its lack of interest. It makes no snese, just another filler piece about UFOs that, on the surface, says nothing, but for those of us obsessed with parsing and dissecting semantics, it says a lot. Or, it says a lot about nothing. No, wait, the “nothing” is a big huge something -- that is, the UFOs -- so it’s the nothing about the something that’s something. Oh, forget it. Moving on. . .

Any official denial can be labeled a cover-up. In the end, it often boils down to a he-said-she-said scenario.

Isn't’ a denial covering up? Given the context of the Stephenville sightings, the fact is that the Air Force did deny having anything to do with the activity in the skies, then turned around and said they were engaging in military exercises. After they said the sightings were probably caused by witnesses mistaking reflected sunlight off airplanes for UFOs. And denying that fighter jets were chasing UFOs. If that’s not a cover-up, what is? Attempts at misdirection and causing confusion; cousins of covering-up.

Steiner goes on to quote Angelia Joiner, the reporter from The Empire Tribune who was fired for her reports on the sightings. I’m not sure why he includes a quote from her about military exercises (see below) because it has nothing to do with her firing, which is a fact.

He ends his piece with this comment:
But who can we believe? The truth remains unidentified.

Who can we believe about what? The UFOs? The ones seen by dozens of witnesses, caught on video? That’s a “truth” and it’s easy to “identify.” Who can we believe about Joiner's firing? It’s a fact she was fired. (Haggling over details: she offered to resign at first, etc. don’t count: reality is, she was fired, (not allowed to resign) her computer confiscated, and her body escorted out of the building.) What “truth” does Steiner mean?

I don’t mean to pick on Steiner, I don’t know him and giving him the benefit of the doubt, he’s just writing a column. He’s certainly not of the ilk of a Randi, McGaha, Shermer, etc. But pieces like this are a good example of the disingenuousness (a form of marginalization)that often surrounds UFO reporting.

The facts remain. People in Stephenville Texas are seeing some very weird things, and that’s a fact. What those things are is another story. This other story is equally important, almost, as UFOs from outer space. Because is they’re not from outer space, they’re ours. And, as Steiner quotes Joiner:
According to Angelia Joiner, the reporter who wrote the original UFO stories, there was another UFO sighting on Saturday. "If the military is testing a secret military device, why do they keep doing it here?" she asked me. "If it's not a secret why do they keep scaring the bejesus out of people?”

Exactly. This is the other story about many UFO sightings. Certainly the Black Triangle UFO sightings fall into this category. Are we to allow, and accept, the fly overs of top secret scary ass weaponry above our heads as a matter of course? Are we being conditioned for blind acceptance of in our face military and covert activities around us? These are concerns that don’t seem to be addressed much by UFO researchers, witnesses, or reporters. The focus seems to be on the dichotomy of UFOS as ET vs. Something Else. What if that something else isn’t ET, but something possibly more sinister? (that’s assuming of course that ET isn’t sinister. I’m no Space Brother groupie.)

Articles like this don’t serve any purpose, they just add to the fluff factor and so further muddle up the perception of UFO activity. Which is a fact. In other words, we shouldn’t get away from the fact that UFOs are a fact. What they are, well, that’s to be determined, and many are going about that in different ways, from the Disclosure Movement to Exopolitics, etc. The more we spiral out from the fact -- UFOs seen in Texas -- the more we dilute the reality that UFOs are here. Which is probably just what “they” are trying to do.

Link:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/2008/02/
new_ufo_sighting_reported_in_s.html?nav=rss_blog

2 comments:

Alfred Lehmberg said...

Damn good piece, Regan!

Morgaine said...

I second that - really excellent.

The coverage of the Texas phenomenon has frustrated me as well. Something real is happening, and the people who are supposed to be reporting it and investigating it are not. It's possible there's some sinister plot, but it's more likely the fact that no one wants to admit they don't know what it is - that would certainly make our government look incapable of providing for our security if they admit that craft of unknown origins are flying about our airspace with impunity.

I also wonder what they think of the fact that all of this is happening near Bush's ranch. We're looking at either systematic deception and/or mass incompetence, neither of which are unusual for the current administration.