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The Problem With Coast To Coast AM and George Noory

30 Jun

June 30, 2016

I make fun of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory a lot. A LOT. In case you don’t know the show, here is their own description:

Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 600 stations in the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Guam, and is heard by nearly three million weekly listeners. With hosts George Noory, George Knapp (weekend), and guest weekend hosts, it is the most listened to overnight radio program in North America. A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena. Coast to Coast AM is overnight talk radio with daytime ratings.

What that leaves out is that it is not nearly as popular or respected as it was under Art Bell, who created it. It also leaves out that under George Noory the show has become a joke. You’ll see why soon.

Art Bell was a critical questioner and listener. He had as guests experts in major scientific fields as well as those involved in fringe paranormal research. But no matter who he had on, he asked probing and intelligent questions and did not let anyone who made outrageous claims go unchallenged. George is just the opposite. Not only is he himself ill-informed  about most of the topics he addresses, he rarely asks follow up questions and never, ever challenges a guest about anything said. Even callers with ridiculous claims are given a “gosh, wow!” by George. Ghost of Hitler got off a UFO and had a picnic with Bigfoot on your front lawn while you danced with pixies and made sandwiches? “That sounds like some afternoon. Do you think they chose you intentionally or do you live in a UFO hot spot?”

The big issue is that George is totally uncritical and unquestioning. He is open to anything and will never, ever say a negative word about anything or anyone.

I debunked a UFO claim on their Facebook page the other day.

C2C crap

I’m not an expert on UFOs. I’m just a guy with an interest in things who has read some books. Surely the host of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, a “media phenomemon” who has been delving into the mysteries of the paranormal for 13 years, would be more knowledgeable than me. Surely someone on his staff would do some research on an alleged UFO photo before posting it on their website. Surely they wouldn’t be powned by a noob like me, right?

Nah, that’s giving them too much credit. No one checks anything. No one bothers. They put anything out there no matter how fake or stupid. (And you should really see some of the stupid stuff on their page.) I saw that photo and immediately knew it was fake. I recognized that UFO from one of the most famous pictures in all of UFOlogy. It is lifted from one of the McMinnville, Oregon photos from 1950.

mcminnville01

Not just a similar object, but the same exact photo. Same lighting. Same silhouette. Same everything except that the doctored photo is so badly done it is a lot blurrier. (To be fair, some of that blurriness came when I enlarged it. Go to their page for the original.) I saw their post, recognized the photo, googled “UFO over farm house” and found that picture in under 20 seconds. The giveaway that it is the exact image is the way the light- and possibly the grain of the photo- makes the left top edge of the object appear to be pointed. Look closely in the Facebook post, it’s there too. I didn’t need any computer skills, I used my own two eyes!

And if you think that it looks like something hanging from a wire, that’s the common claim of debunkers.

That picture dates back to 1950. It is over 65 years old and has been reprinted in books all over the world since then, not to mention the internet. But did the “media phenomenon” recognize it? Nope, no one even bothered to look into it for a second.  It took me to discover that it was a doctored picture? Way to go George Noory.

 

 

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Final Score: Mets 1, Fans 0

28 May

May 28, 2016

Today the Mets are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1986 World Series Championship team. There will be a great celebration at Citifield with the members of the 86 team reuniting, with highlights, events, and giveaways. However, thanks to the usual incompetence of their owner, Fred Wilpon, most of the team’s fans won’t see any of it. Frankly, Cheap Freddie doesn’t care.

So how did Wilpon mess it up?
1- He scheduled it on the Memorial Day weekend, a time when people have travel plans, or go to the beach, or barbecue. It will be close to 90 degrees here in New York and many people won’t be watching. But that doesn’t matter because…
2- The celebration will take place an hour before the actual game. Problem is, the game is being aired on FOX (which is even worse than ESPN when it comes to ruining games) and they will not be showing the celebration. They may show highlights during the game, but fans want to cheer the players, the classic moments, the plays, everything the celebration has to offer, not a clip dropped in between pitches. The irony is that Fred Wilpon also owns sports channel SNY, which airs the majority of the Met games. They are the Mets home station and had they the rights to air this game they would show every second of the pre-game celebration. But FOX has this game. And Freddie knew it.

So why did New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon schedule the celebration on a day when most people would have other plans and the television network would not show it? Why did he guarantee that most fans won’t see the celebration? He did it because the Mets are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets and Dodgers are not heated rivals. They do not have a celebrated history together. The simple, sad truth is the Fred Wilpon is a Dodgers fan. That’s all. This is not a guess or a theory. Freddie has talked and talked about his love of the Dodgers. When the Mets new stadium was built, it was designed as a replica of Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. When you enter, the lobby is a tribute to- you guessed it- the Brooklyn Dodgers, with pictures and displays of the Dodgers, and the highlight was (and still is) a giant tribute to Jackie Robinson. Jackie never played for the Mets. So the Mets 86 World Series tribute is on the worst possible day simply because New York Mets Team Owner Freddie is a Dodgers fan.

mad-mr-met-at-citi-field-copy

But that’s not all. Awful Fred Wilpon also ruined the day for most of the fans who will be in the stands today. Here’s the next way Wilpon messed it up.
3- The Mets are giving away replica World Series rings to the first 15,000 fans in the stadium. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, no. Citifield will be sold out today and the stadium holds 45,000 fans. So 15,000 fans get rings and 30,000 fans get ugatz. In other words, Fred Wilpon has created an event where it is GUARANTEED that 2/3 of the fans will be given NOTHING but bad feelings. Unless you count an empty wallet, since parking costs $23 and even a hot dog is $6.25, highest in the major leagues.

The night before was jersey night. ALL fans got a replica jersey. So on the actual celebration day, why cheap out? The Mets don’t even pay for the giveaways. Oh no, not a penny is pried out of Freddie’s iron-clad wallet. These are sponsored. The sponsor pays for these. All the Mets need to do is add to the contract that there be enough giveaway rings for everyone. If the sponsor can’t afford it, get another. This is NEW YORK and this team went to the WORLD SERIES last year. There is no shortage of potential sponsors.

But this is a Fred Wilpon team. Last year they were sponsored by- this is true!- SendInTheClowns. com. Can you imagine a more appropriate company?

clowns mets

So get ready for the Mets Celebration!
Get ready to not see it!
Get ready to not get the free gift!

Wilpon sucks.

 

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