"World's Greatest Hoaxes"

Benjamin Radford, managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and LiveScience's "Bad Science Columnist", has posted an article on the LiveScience's website entitled "The World's Greatest Hoaxes".

It includes several items within this list of the "World's Greatest Hoaxes" that will be familiar to many readers of the ATS "Aliens and UFOs" forum.

It includes a few odd choices (such as the recent minor hoax by Chris Russo and Joe Rudy - which surely does not belong in a short list of the "World's Greatest Hoaxes") and a few items that are not supported by the evidence/links provided in the article. For example, the suggestion that the Betty and Barney Hill sighting was a "hoax" (which implies dishonest intention) is extremely controversial and the link provided merely suggests that the story may have been a "dream- and hypnosis-inspired alien abduction story" - with no evidence of a dishonest intention. I have read many discussions of this incident by skeptics and few (if any) would suggest that it was an intentionally fabricated "hoax".

Perhaps Benjamin Radford should be asked to retract the unqualified allegation of a "hoax" or provide better supporting evidence...

Extracts from "The World's Greatest Hoaxes":

Raelians

In 2004, a religious sect called the Raelians claimed that a group of their scientists had created the world's first human clone, a seven-pound baby girl named Eve. The ultimate goal, according to leader Rael (who claims to have descended from extraterrestrials), was to achieve immortality. The announcement was met with widespread public condemnation and skepticism among scientists, while President George W. Bush called for a ban on human cloning. The claim was eventually exposed as a publicity stunt when the group failed to produce evidence of the experiments — or the cloned child.


...
Crazy for crop circles

Though many people believe that crop circles have been reported for centuries, in fact they only date back about thirty years. The mysterious circles first appeared in the British countryside, and their origin remained a mystery until September 1991, when two men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, confessed that they had created crop circles for decades as a prank to make people think UFOs had landed. They never claimed to have made all the circles-- in fact many were copycat hoaxes done by others-- but their hoax was responsible for launching the crop circle phenomena.
...

Strange lights over New Jersey:

College kids Chris Russo and Joe Rudy used a helium tank, five balloons, five flares, fishing line and duct tap to spawn a host of UFO reports in January, 2009. The duo videotaped their hoax, so the real story eventually came out — and they got fined $250 by a local judge for the activity.

...
Plus, an all-time classic that spawned many copycats:

Alien abduction: In the 1960s, Barney and Betty Hill claimed they were pursued by a glowing UFO through parts of New Hampshire. This first reported incident of an alleged alien abduction in America. Even UFO buffs eventually found their increasingly outlandish claims hard to believe.

What...
They forgot chemtrails.

Hoaxes work both ways! I believe the greatest hoax is that UFOs don't exist.

What about GMO's, or Income Tax, or Voting?

Three simple searches:

1. GMO's: watch "The World According to Monsanto"
   
2. Income Tax: "Ed and Elaine Brown"
   
3. Voting: "Treasonous Bribery on Capitol Hill" or just "Lobbying"
   
   

And that's not even really trying ('cause I'm laughing too hard, instead of crying).

Originally posted by secretnasaman
Hoaxes work both ways! I believe the greatest hoax is that UFOs don't exist.

You beat me to it.

Add "Honest Debunker's". If they were truly honest, they'd be believers.

the hoax terrorist 911 events is surely the worlds greatest hoax.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


I do wish they'd include John Lundberg and Rod Dickinson etc. in the crop circles hoax, although they were inspired and IIRC met with Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, they really took it to the next level in the 1990s. They were figuratively and literally artists. I don't think the author of the greatest hoaxes was that familiar with this.

For me the greatest hoax of the noughties, thus far, has to be the STS-75 UFO flap; never, in photographic history has so much time being spent arguing over the sentience of Bokeh.

I think the Hale-Bopp companions hoax, whether deliberate or accidental, stands testament to why hoaxing for any reason is a risky business.

The Santilli hoax was very slick, and I think it deserves to be in any greatest hoaxes list. Because loads of mainstream media credulously lapped it up, all over the world, and now like to pretend they didn't.

reply to post by IsaacKoi


And who is Benjamin Radford? Simply another exponent of the big Hypocrisy since
Radford makes a living based on the UFO Phenomena, as clear as that. Radford need
UFOs and as long as the UFO Phenomena is alive he will make money to eat, a fact.
Needless to say more.

Originally posted by jackphotohobby
reply to post by IsaacKoi

 

I do wish they'd include John Lundberg and Rod Dickinson etc. in the crop circles hoax, although they were inspired and IIRC met with Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, they really took it to the next level in the 1990s. They were figuratively and literally artists. I don't think the author of the greatest hoaxes was that familiar with this.

For me the greatest hoax of the noughties, thus far, has to be the STS-75 UFO flap; never, in photographic history has so much time being spent arguing over the sentience of Bokeh.

I think the Hale-Bopp companions hoax, whether deliberate or accidental, stands testament to why hoaxing for any reason is a risky business.

The Santilli hoax was very slick, and I think it deserves to be in any greatest hoaxes list. Because loads of mainstream media credulously lapped it up, all over the world, and now like to pretend they didn't.

if you watch it watch it all as the best is later in.
www.youtube.com...

if you can tell yourself what can power itself out of earths orbit like that then sleep well .. not to mention come to a full stop then decend in such a measured way.
ive no problem with the same craft being part of the melee on a trajectory directly behind the tether.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by manxman2]

Originally posted by secretnasaman
Hoaxes work both ways! I believe the greatest hoax is that UFOs don't exist.

How can you not believe a fact? This is not up for debate, UFO's DO exist..

2nd line

reply to post by IsaacKoi


I was surprised and disappointed that the #1 hoax by Travis Walton was not named on the front page but was "buried" on another page.

Originally posted by Skeptical Ed
reply to post by IsaacKoi

 

I was surprised and disappointed that the #1 hoax by Travis Walton was not named on the front page but was "buried" on another page.

The FBI hoaxed it up with lies about ETs.
A Heene if ever there was one.
Yet all his friends ran off because of lies about saucers.
Just don't get too close to the pressure wave like Walton.

Originally posted by jackphotohobby
I do wish they'd include John Lundberg and Rod Dickinson etc. in the crop circles hoax, although they were inspired and IIRC met with Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, they really took it to the next level in the 1990s. They were figuratively and literally artists. I don't think the author of the greatest hoaxes was that familiar with this.

I think the list of the "World's Greatest Hoaxes" indicates the author is not actually that familiar with the history of hoaxes in relation to UFOs or crop circles (or the interesting stories that arise from certain hoaxers/artists moving from one field of hoaxing to the other...).

For example, there are several hoaxes by skeptics that were motivated (or at least said to be motivated) by a desire to see how UFO believers and UFO researchers responded to a staged stimulus. Several such "experiemental" hoaxes were far more elaborate, and commonly discussed by ufologists and skeptics alike, than the Chris Russo and Joe Rudy. See, for example, discussions of SIUFOP's classic Cradle Hill UFO hoax at Warminster - including the relatively recent discussion by one of the relevant hoaxers at this link which concluded with the following observation:

Conclusion

Hoaxes have been a useful tool for testing observational skills and the investigational abilities of ufologists. They have clearly illustrated that humans see what they want to see and that the quality of UFO investigations is generally very poor indeed.