The UFO Hacker

I read Rob The 'X' Zone Radio Show McConnell’s position on the Stephenville case and was very offended.

McConnell invited some people from Stephenville to be interviewed on The X Radio Show:
Angelia Joiner, of the Stephenville Empire-Tribune
The President of the local Chamber of Commerce
The Local Chapter Of MUFON .

http://xzonenation.blogspot.com/2008/01/wake-up-ufology.html


Let’s give a listen to Mr. McConnell’s conclusion about why these interested parties never showed up:
“However, when invited on a show like The 'X' Zone that challenges what they say, what they claim to have seen, and what their personal motives might really be, [they] decline to come on the show. Also, I sent to all members of the Stephenville Chamber of Commerce who had their email addresses listed in the Chamber Member Directory emails asking them how the UFO publicity has been for business, asking for a reply for Wednesday night’s show... not one member of the Chamber replied.”

McConnell’s litmus test of What Is Truth of course, would be found on his radio show. As he rambles on about inviting these guests, he doesn’t seem to have any insight that what he proposes is self-serving, to say the least. McConnell’s attitude to those who won’t do his bidding is absurd, as he accuses these Stephenville, Texas citizens and others of involvement in all kinds of weird conspiracies.

You’ve got to wonder if it crossed McConnell’s mind that these Stephenville folks’ No Thanks responses were perfectly reasonable…since, from what I can tell, McConnell seems to be over fond of the illogical rant format, and may even be a bit of a nut, himself.

Implying these witnesses were somehow in league with a purported UFO conference, or outside promoter, or the tiny town’s C of C, it all sounds to me like something right out of the Joseph McCarthy - HUAC era.

Track McConnell:
“Now, is it just coincidence that the Stephenville UFO sighting happens just in time to cross promote the 2008 UFO Conference [congress] and Film Festival that is being held Saturday February 23, 2008 - Saturday March 1, 2008 at the New Aquarius Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada?”

“….Would this type of UFO event be successful if it were to be held in New York, Washington or even Chicago? I doubt it.”

What I wonder about is this: how reality-based is McConnell? How could a rational thinker ignore the obvious?

Mr. McConnell, since everyone else gets it, you can, too.

About that Laughlin, Nevada conference, only somebody confident in his ability to sell the illogical bombast and the rant format could float such a whack concept, because if there’s one thing a conference involves, it’s an advance plan. Here’s the short list of what it takes to take a conference out of the Imaginary McConnell World into reality: deposit in escrow the cost of securing a big conference hall, printing and mailing press kits, buying blocks of print and radio advertising, paying speakers’ fees, paying insurance bonds, signing on with hotels…In other words, a conference represents a mountain of crucial, reality-based details which typically require …finalizing it all two to four years in advance.

Instead of logic, McConnell aims his not-so-rigorous thinking on trashing the credibility of the small-town, ‘just folks’ witnesses.

None of us ufology investigators and the well-intentioned ufo-curious folks care much for the circus atmosphere around any big UFO case. But it comes with the territory.

I think it’s clear to anybody from any orientation there are plenty of undocumented claims in thousands of books on the subject…and plenty of commercialism in UFO land.

But for those who don’t question government or mainstream media’s latest version of the UFO phenomenon, and for those who can’t be bothered to do close reading of the widely available material, what will always be most important to both these subgroups of the naysayer population is the other most controversial aspect of ufology: the profit-making sector.

So the best a person can do when getting a UFO education is to think for themselves while they race along the UFO information highway.

And the ground truth is, if ETs are here, they alone know for certain what they are doing.

Mr. McConnell is not about Truth, he is about his truth.

It’s not easy for good witnesses to come forward and tell what they saw. This is real life, and people who happen to be UFO witnesses --those who see objects, who undergo tremendous elation or tremendous fear during the event and its aftermath, and who face what can happen to their lives and their families when they report it-- those real witnesses have harsh realizations and tough decisions in store.


DVD: History Channel UFO Files
"Brazilian Roswell" Where One UFO Witness committed Suicide

I guess McConnell missed the Larry King Show and the UFO witnesses who appeared and spoke, since he goes on like so:
“It seems that as long as members of the media are willing to swallow all the UFO hype without questioning those who have these ‘sightings,’ the self proclaimed ‘investigators’ and the members of society that I call the ‘woo - woo crowd’ - they will talk a blue streak... showing fuzzy photos... shaky video... out of focused lights... talk about alien abductions and how they have been probed in various manners... how their cattle are being mutilated... and they are being used as human incubators for alien genetic experimentation.”

Does it seem crazy to you that a cattle rancher who pays $100,000 for a prize bull wants to know what mutilated it? Or that a person who has daylight sightings of a UFO and reports it, or who has an abduction experience, lives in fear of being crazy? Or being called crazy by the McConnells out there?

I don’t appreciate McConnell’s Bill O’reilly (“Orally”) tactics, which when played, insinuate the worst motives for anyone who doesn’t agree with them…or will not do what they want.

Finally, McConnell says:
“The investigative procedures of examining unidentified flying objects, to gain the respect of society must be done by credible persons, who have earned the right to be called investigators and researchers by taking legitimate courses, understanding human psychology, astronomy, chemistry, physics and other established courses…”

GOTCHA!

Hey, McConnell, yes, MUFON does indeed have scientists from all disciplines educated at the best universities. The MUFON field researchers who get their hands dirty and go on investigations, those researchers usually know what they’re doing, too.

MUFON is holding more classes to teach volunteers their well-regarded, comprehensive field investigation techniques. By the way, I hope MUFON also revises the Field Guide. It needs it.

MUFON is doing what it can with limited funds. I don’t like to see commercialism in any research endeavor, but MUFON could not survive without some financial support.

It’s easy to criticize, but it’s hard to keep a UFO investigative body going for 38 years with shoestring financing. UFO fads come and go, but bills have to be paid.

We also have The National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena --NARCAP-- with a distinguished board of investigators.

However, without the UFO witness, all of this would be nothing.

You could say the witnesses to UFO phenomenon come forward in a UFO world not of their making. For over 80 years UFO witnesses have courageously given public testimony to what they experienced, and by their thankless, often dangerous participation, these thousands of witnesses are opening the door ever wider to the truth.

Many witness accounts have been proven legitimate by research and by the test of time.

These classic, proven close encounters --attested by honest UFO witnesses--unfortunately still are often the stuff of laughter and McConnell-style rants outside the UFO community. Do we really need it from McConnell, too?

Some believe in a world where cattle ranchers, farmers and other hard-working, regular people are just dying to put forward a UFO hoax. In McConnell’s imaginary world, everyday people can’t wait to ruin their reputations and their standing in communities where they’ve lived and raised their kids for decades, just so they can be insulted on radio, misquoted in print, and have strangers and military showing up on their doorstep for close encounters ranging from threats to biased interviews to TV soundbytes [inevitably edited down to incomplete or misleading quotes], all hours of the day and night.

Instead of being so quick to attack UFO witnesses and their supporters, maybe we should be questioning the motives of self-righteous ranters like McConnell, who finds it easy to put everyone else’s intentions on trial, and resorts to the dumbed-down chump approach that lumps all UFO cases, all witnesses, investigations, organizations, books, and conferences into One Thing.

That’s wrong. And worse, it’s lazy.

When you look closely at what people like McConnell stand for… you’ll find intellectual dishonesty at its worst.

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Joseph Capp

UFO Media Matters

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