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Author Topic: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex  (Read 39197 times)

JNev

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2015, 05:13:30 AM »

It just occurs to me that far more could be done in a positive way to have a more inviting search community.  It is a shame that the search for Earhart (in broad industry terms) has come to be under such a ragged umbrella that onlookers may think, by and large, that we are a bunch of kooks because of the frequent tone of criticism.

And again, I'm not pointing fingers.  If I did I'd have to take heat too for my own sharp tongue at times, so not to be a hypocrit I hope, but simply to say if people are that passionate about this thing, then consider what it is that you do to build (or not) a positive community.

Less than that means we simply have competing interests who are perpetually trying to elbow the next guy aside in pursuit of what can only be shrinking public interest.
- Jeff Neville

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Todd Attebery

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #16 on: February 13, 2015, 11:10:21 AM »

I keep thinking of some idea on how TIGHAR could create a "fund-a-skeptic" as a fundraising option.   Something along the lines of $50 to nominate a TECHTIC member, $5 per vote.   If the skeptics can put their money where their mouth is and collectively raise $50,000; the top vote getter gets a place on the boat as a critical observer.  Obviously the "winner" would have to abide by some rules (not sue TIGHAR after the fact, follow the captains rules, behave in civil manor, etc).  Just a random thought but it might be worth two cents.
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pilotart

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2015, 08:53:11 AM »

The level of vitriol that TECTIC directs at TIGHAR continues to amaze and dismay me. The furor raised over the recent Smithsonian article is just one example. The sheer viciousness of the comments, many of them pointedly personal, makes it clear to me that there will most likely never be common ground where we can all meet in the middle.

Which is sad. Because all of us want the same thing, ultimately - to find out what happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. They deserve to have the final chapter of their story written.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP
What got me. Was the way the bashing was done on other websites.  In there presentations the bashing was strict and broke up the story that was being told. My first year in college one of our assignments was to go to college events (plays etc). We had to write two paragraphs about each event. One was strictly what the event was about. The second was our thoughts on the event. As a critic basically

So the way they had mixed their bashing with the subject of the article made me sick. Not only of that article. But of the whole website and theories presented.

However you are right disproving other theories are one way to sway others that your theory may be more credible.  And that can draw advertisement to your theory.

How to do all of this is all in how it is presented.
One of the most valuable contributors (over 4,000 great posts) to a site which contains TIGHAR bashing and vitriol has now had it and is pulling himself and his thousands of fantastic photos completely out from the site.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=55857&p=553464#p553464

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(From above site)<....>But something I cannot tolerate or stand by and see happen, no matter if it's my business or not, is to see people use an internet forum (such as WIX) to accuse and slander other people and/or organizations <....>

Hatred is always unhealthy, for both the 'hater' and the vehicle containing it.
Art
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« Last Edit: May 11, 2015, 08:59:28 AM by pilotart »
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Monty Fowler

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #18 on: May 11, 2015, 02:49:43 PM »

Hatred is always unhealthy, for both the 'hater' and the vehicle containing it.
Art

Quite so, Art. For reasons that are unfathomable to me, several members of the WIX forum have singled me out for repeated personal attacks. They seem unnaturally concerned with anyone who would want to support TIGHAR in any way, shape, or form.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP
Ex-TIGHAR member No. 2189 E C R SP, 1998-2016
 
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Andrew M McKenna

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #19 on: May 12, 2015, 09:03:06 AM »

Seems the folks on WIX have done themselves in for the time being... I guess they couldn't follow the simple rules offered by the Editor in his signature at the bottom of his posts.

<<<<<<<<<<
This thread is locked down... yet again. It will remain locked down until the end of the week when I will spend time going through it and editing the posts. Any further topics regard this subject will be deleted. For the time being any subject regarding TIGHAR will be deleted. So lets just allow this topic to cool off for now.

_________________
Scott Rose
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Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry - MilitarySciFi.com

Be civil, be polite, be nice.... or be elsewhere.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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JNev

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #20 on: May 12, 2015, 12:12:33 PM »

Caught ya peekin' too!

The trouble with 'they' and other labels and boxes is that all of us spectrum-demented folks tend to get thrown into one 'box' when you note things as you have, Andrew. ;)

Not to argue too finely, but a perplexing oddball did show up and rather single-handedly draw the ire of nearly all.  Rather than effectively moderate the rascal, the whole is treated as the least.  I would have welcomed Ric''s mole mallet where that gent was concerned on WIX. 

But as to labels and boxes, so it seems to be with most any blog, at least to some degree.  I'll be labeled as a kool aid drinker by some merely for appearing here just now. 

Well, sanity is where you find it, and this seemed nice in a sea of crazy.  Good to peek in and catch you peeking.
- Jeff Neville

Former Member 3074R
 
« Last Edit: May 12, 2015, 12:14:35 PM by Jeffrey Neville »
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Monty Fowler

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #21 on: May 23, 2015, 01:19:53 PM »

I admit to still being baffled by all of the vitriol repeatedly and rather pointedly directed my way by several members of the WIX forums. Some of them seem to take great offense at the TECTIC label, which I charitably ascribe to a simple misunderstanding of the acronym. Perhaps if I had written it this way ...

The Earhart CONSPIRACY THEORY Industrial Complex

... it would have been clearer. I'm simply calling into question the very, very large number of Earhart theories that require some kind of conspiracy, be it from the US government, the Japanese government, space aliens or Earhart herself, in order to validate their particular theory. I have found all of those, to date, to be less than credible, mainly for the simple fact that they invariably require a leap of faith larger than what would be required to clear the Grand Canyon in a single bound.

I prefer to live in and deal with the real world, which can be quite complex enough on its dullest days.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP

Ex-TIGHAR member No. 2189 E C R SP, 1998-2016
 
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Bill Mangus

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #22 on: May 23, 2015, 03:23:49 PM »

I wouldn't worry about it too much Monty.  I think they're days are numbered.
Recent post on their forum:
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Scott WRG Editor wrote:

I am starting to receive legal pressure about these threads. Please follow the no personal attacks rules. I've got the Banhammer on standby and the Banhammer II in stealth mode. I will give no warnings or explanations on editing these threads, and if the trend continues I will eliminate them. These threads have caused enough grief already and have severely taxed my willingness to condone non-warbird subjects.
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Jeff Scott

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #23 on: May 25, 2015, 05:20:16 PM »

I'm simply calling into question the very, very large number of Earhart theories that require some kind of conspiracy, be it from the US government, the Japanese government, space aliens or Earhart herself, in order to validate their particular theory.

Other than the various strains of Japanese capture theories, the rival explanations of Earhart's disappearance seem to have little to no conspiratorial elements. Crash and Sink and East New Britain probably have even fewer than the Gardner theory. I can think of two bits of conspiracy Ric has expounded upon in the past...

1) The Navy/Coast Guard made up details of the incident to cover up their mistakes in the post-disappearance search.

All of the Coast Guard and Navy after-action reports include heavy-doses of not-our-fault, blame-the-victim.  Factual errors and false assumptions abound.  There was also a noticeable element of getting-our-story-straight.  Commander Thompson's (CO of Itasca) "Radio Transcripts Earhart Flight" is the worst of the lot.  Many, but by no means all, of the inaccuracies and self-serving distortions in the official reports are described and documented in Finding Amelia.

2) The British colonial officers (Luke, Vaskess, Gallagher) decided not to report the bones discovery to Americans despite suggestions they were Earhart's remains.

Gallagher was initially equivocal about the bones being Earhart's and, in the end, on July 3, 1941 when he was in Fiji, he wrote:

"I have read the contents of this file with great interest. It does look as if the skeleton was that of some unfortunate native castaway and the sextant box and other curious articles found nearby the remains are quite possibly a few of his precious possessions which he managed to save.

2. There was no evidence of any attempt to dig a well and the wretched man presumably died of thirst. less than two miles away there is a small grove of coconut trees which would have been sufficient to keep him alive if he had only found it. He was separated from those trees, however, by an inpenetrable [sic] belt of bush."

But Hoodless judged the skeleton to be "probably not that of a pure South Sea Islander-Micronesian or Polynesian" and no place on the island is separated from any other place by "an impenetrable  belt of bush."  You can always just walk down the beach.  Gallagher's disavowal of his earlier speculation sounds like signing on to the accepted party line.
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Martin X. Moleski, SJ

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #24 on: May 25, 2015, 06:02:00 PM »

All of the Coast Guard and Navy after-action reports include heavy-doses of not-our-fault, blame-the-victim.  Factual errors and false assumptions abound.  There was also a noticeable element of getting-our-story-straight.  Commander Thompson's (CO of Itasca) "Radio Transcripts Earhart Flight" is the worst of the lot.  Many, but by no means all, of the inaccuracies and self-serving distortions in the official reports are described and documented in Finding Amelia.

I've read Finding Amelia.

I've read all of the Jacobson databases.

I can see the discrepancies--the "distortions" to which Ric refers--between the source material and the later reports.

In my view, it's a pretty respectable accusation.

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2) The British colonial officers (Luke, Vaskess, Gallagher) decided not to report the bones discovery to Americans despite suggestions they were Earhart's remains.

When your doctor says they are the bones of a male, what grounds do you have for reporting to the Americans that you have found "Earhart's remains"?  Gallagher was the one who suggested that they were Earhart's bones.  The doctor rejected that suggestion.  How could Gallagher have done anything but "sign on to the party line"?  He was a junior colonial official in a very poor and remote outpost.  He was outranked by the doctor.  I don't see that Ric is suggesting any huge conspiracy by the British to "cover up" the truth that Amelia died on Niku; they were persuaded it wasn't she who had died there.  Whether the jungle between the death site and the coconuts was a factor in the death of the castaway is irrelevant to the judgment that the bones were from a male, not from a female.

The hallmark of the crazy conspiracy theories is the accusation that someone knows the truth and has successfully suppressed it for 78 years.  I don't see any signs of that in the acceptance of the doctor's judgment about the bones.

YMMV.
LTM,

           Marty
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Monty Fowler

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #25 on: May 26, 2015, 01:13:51 PM »

Bill, I have absolutely no idea what "legal pressures" the WIX moderator is referring to. I made a reasonable request (albeit repeatedly due to initial non-responsiveness on their part), and Scott Rose did choose to act on it.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 ECSP
Ex-TIGHAR member No. 2189 E C R SP, 1998-2016
 
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Bill Mangus

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Re: The Earhart Conspiracy Theory Industrial Complex
« Reply #26 on: May 26, 2015, 02:23:37 PM »

Monty, neither do I but someone, somewhere, has done or said something that got Mr. Rose's attention.  We'll just have to wait for further developments.
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