Ah, how well I remember, remember, the 5th of November and sitting at my PC watching a New York City cocktail party as we (learned later) waited for
some certain important media representatives to arrive. Several chat rooms were full, and lines of members stood outside in the cybercold waiting for
an opportunity to join in. 'Twas the largest total
evah of ATS members logged in at any single moment.
The "official" purpose of the gathering was to present ATS to the mainstream media. (The "unofficial" purpose was to make AccessDenied and
Duckster drive 700 miles for a few free drinks.
)
A discussion in one of the 5th of November threads naturally turned to wondering just how effective the meet-and-greet would be in resulting in actual
media citations.
Would conspiracy/UFO/paranormal-related stories in the on-line media begin to cite ATS as a source of useful information?
The next morning I signed up for Google Alerts. Any article that mentions ATS, written by a news source that publishes on-line (and is "crawled" by
Google), will be forwarded to my inbox.
It feels like it's been a long wait. But, on this evening of Friday, January 11th, 2008, I finally received my first ATS-related Google Alert.
The story is at Wired.com, and concerns the increasing number of alleged UFO sightings on Lake Erie and, tangentally, how YouTube.com has become the
outlet of choice for showing videos of these sightings.
www.wired.com...
The article kicks off like this:
Waves of UFO sightings over the waters of Lake Erie are earning the great lake a reputation as a UFO hot spot. But the lake's new popularity may
have more to do with a string of popular videos on YouTube than sightings of little green men.
"It's a hot spot," declares local ufologist Aaron Clark about the beaches of Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio. "Some believe there's a UFO base on
the bottom of the lake."
Midway through the article it gets a little interesting for ATSers (emphasis added):
"There's a huge story unfolding here," says Michael Lee Hill, a musician and the person who shot the "merging UFOs" video. "I think they're
absolutely sending us a message. I believe they are here to help us become a galactic society."
Hill is responsible for most of the Lake Erie videos on YouTube,
and has sold clips to news and documentary shows. His video of "merging
UFOs" was shown by FOX News and used by ufologist David Sereda in two documentaries, Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs and From Here to Andromeda.
Hill, an accomplished guitarist, also produced the music for Andromeda. He will also appear on an episode of UFO Hunters, which premieres on
The History Channel in February.
And here's where ATS enters stage center:
After Hill posted his "merging UFOs" video to Abovetopsecret.com, a popular paranormal discussion board, the thread took on a skeptical slant.
Hill claimed he pointed his camera directly north, toward Canada. But with the help of a flight-tracking map, one skeptic claims Hill's camera is
more likely pointing to the west and is probably filming the incoming flight path of two distant planes in an S-shaped landing pattern.
AboveTopSecret.com has labeled Hill's video a hoax.
Michael Lee Hill is
Banned ATS member, Frozenthought. This is the referenced and, very thankfully, linked thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Wired.com, of course, passes no judgment on the nature of Hill's videos. They simply report that he is
**ahem** making quite the career out
of producing them.
Good work, guys and gals.
(Edited to tweak syntax.)
[edit on 12-1-2008 by Tuning Spork]
