UFO hoax
© Anthony WhartonThis "UFO" image was created with a model.
As American ufologists deal with seemingly heightened numbers of anomalous reports nationwide amid rapid communications advances and flourishing social networking web sites - the hoaxers are out in larger numbers as well.

One delicate piece of the picture is the often polite stand that UFO hunters take - being good listeners - as they try to sort out the difference between Mother Nature, something manmade, and what might be anomalous.

Case in point is the recent posting at YouTube of a video purported to be a video phone capture of the O'Hare Airport sighting from Nov. 7, 2006. What you read in columns like mine about these kinds of events is straight reporting - it's an event - of a video gaining more than a quarter-million viewer hits. But in the background, behind what you're reading, myself and those ufoloigsts I contact for an opinion, are shaking our heads and saying, "No, not again."

So being kind and being a good listener allows some of the hoaxing to get through.

British citizen Anthony Wharton finally fessed up this morning, announcing in an email to me that his social experiment set out to prove ufologists and the media will let anything through the system.

Well, it's also a story worth reporting if more than a quarter million people are watching it. There are lots of fictional network television shows out there that I don't like, but the definition of newsworthy can be bent to report on something that is getting a lot of attention. Last year's report that a Bigfoot body was found is another case in point. While the Bigfoot research community stepped up for a closer look, and major media worldwide reported on it, everyone was frowning in the background. And of course the end of the story was news of a faked body.

UFO hoax
© Anthony WhartonImage created with model.
News out of Morris County, New Jersey, today is yet another case.

Joe Rudy, 28, and Chris Russo, 29, have been charged with disorderly conduct, after prosecutors there learned of the hoax on YouTube, where they actually showed us how they did it - red flares, helium balloons and fishing line. But UFO researchers stepped in originally and reported on this case, and network television - UFO Hunters - carried a segment on it.

I don't want quality shows like UFO Hunters to give up. Reporting on any anomalous event is mainly an after-the-fact event. You typically have only witness testimony - what observers saw at a scene - and sometimes the event is captured as a photo or a video - often with lower quality camera phones. I give UFO Hunters Producer Dave Pavoni and company thumbs up for taking on the case as it was presented.

Ufologists want to get to the bottom of this constant worldwide barrage of UFO reports. They cannot do that without getting out into the thick of it - field investigation. And brother, field investigations cost money - hats off to shows like UFO Hunters that expend the funds and bring story into our living rooms. Any one individual or group who is investigating UFOs will run into a hoax now and again.

UFO hoax
© Anthony WhartonImage created with model.
And there is a major problem drawing the line between wanting to have an open mind, listening to what witnesses are saying, reporting known facts, offering an opinion - and making upfront decisions about who is hoaxing and who is legitimate. Should we be doing that? In many cases, the reports are slim on solid, scientifically provable facts that would make a skeptic dance in the street.

If we only reported on hard, scientifically proven cases - there would be no news on UFOs. Did I hear the skeptics dancing in the streets? And those thousands of people worldwide who are actually experiencing these anomalous events daily would have no evidence database to turn to.

Allen Hynek would roll over in his grave.

Well - here's the video Wharton wants you to see now - about how he created the O'Hare UFO video. Give it a view.