How to Kill a News Story

Lately with all the Alien and UFO connected news hitting the media I have seen a disturbing trend.

The fact that this material is coming out from all quarters to me is significant and as such many other members will be wanting to jump on the band wagon and start threads on a topic. Well that will lead to duplicates that the mods usually catch... fair enough

But what I am seeing more of is a tendency to 'shoot the messenger' type posts that invariably start the derailment of a thread...

Now stories in the media like this..

BREAKING!: Britain to Search for Alien Life in Earth's Atmosphere!
www.abovetopsecret.com...

...are bound to attract people in the fringes of UFOlogy just as they attract most of us here at ATS, but just because someone like Icke also runs with the story, does that immediately invalidate the story? To be sure in this case the ORIGINAL headline is sensationalistic, but that is how the media has always sold press.

Not going to post on the content, as there are many threads on it already... but when I clicked on that new thread hoping to see more info... I see stuff like this...

woodwardjnr
Massively misleading title to this thread unless i missed something?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yeah ya missed something...
A) had you clicked the first link in the post you would have seen the title was verbatim from the news source
B) ATS policy states we must use original headlines

The OP linked to some youtube videos... one had Icke in it...

So that immediately results in this..

QuantumDisciple
David Icke lost me when he claimed to be the son of God.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Mclaneinc
As for topic, sorry but it has our UK nut case Icke in it, all credibility is instantly crushed!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Then I see this...

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Massively misleading title to this thread
unless i missed something?

torsion
It's a Rajaten thread so I doubt you missed anything!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So within the first page the actual news item has completely been forgotten in the zeal to say because a certain unpopular 'UFOlogist' happens to comment on a story it is now worthless and also an attack on the character of a member...

Yet the story was real

So since the news media generally print a story and then move on... it is on the internet that the story has any life. But the minute someone of ill repute adds his/her viewpoint the story gets buried in rhetoric jokes and insults.

At least one member stood up to be counted

DrHammondStoat
I'm feeling helpful today The title of the thread relates to this story from a few days ago; www.telegraph.co.uk... (Edit. It is in the very first link rajaten supplied too)

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If I was working for TPTB, I would hire a handful of people to play the lunatic and make sure attention is diverted

Come on people this is ATS... we are supposed to be above that sort of thing

ATS has been like this for a long time now.
People rubbish the story based on anything from spelling mistakes to thread titles to how well the thread is written.

It should always be content that counts but it very rarely is.

sums up the challenges going on here nicely. s&f to bump it.

reply to post by zorgon


Agreed 100%

I hate when I start reading a thread that has some really good information in it but gets derailed by some poster who doesnt agree with a claim or person in which the OP started the thread about.

It seems almost childish sometimes when ppl insult the OP because of something stated directly from the source yet still gets bashed for putting it on ATS.

Hopefully some of these members will see the fault of this and have a change of heart

Great thread

reply to post by zorgon


i completely agree.
intelligent skeptisism seems to be few and far between.

reply to post by zorgon


It's pointless posting on here with the negs. They are so annoying - and you cannot ignore or block them - which takes away the enjoyment and serenity - so I cbf posting anymore - just encouraging those new that dare to think out of the box.

ATS is just another website that is all about $$$ these days (and if they want to make $$$ thats totally their freedom to do so). But we all know there are serious and positive BBS out there - you may just need to take the time to seek them out.

I thank ATS however, for introducing me to some very articulate, informed open minds - which has helped me understand many things I didn't before.

Just write a book FFS zorgon - I know it would be a phenomenal seller - after all with all the work you do here - and the traffic you generate - you really should be compensated somehow.

Look, I'm not going to apologize for the statement I made about David Icke! An OP should do some research into what is used to support his thread topic.

reply to post by QuantumDisciple


I enjoy David Icke's data on reptilians although I don't agree with him on some of his assertions regarding WHO is a reptilian. But I think Zorgon has a point. The subject is not the poster. The news article is not connected to the thread, the thread is connected to the news article.

reply to post by undo


If I started a News thread and then tried to help substanciate it by using Daffy Duck I would expect ATSers to point out Daffy isn't a credible source for news. To me, a man who claims to be THE(not a) son of God is as credible as Daffy Duck. I felt the readers of the post should be informed of this.

QD: You are missing the point. It doesn't matter what Icke is, that has nothing to do with the story. After it was explained to you it doesn't seem to matter you state the same thing again.

I totally agree with you Zorgon S&F

I totally agree with Zorgon.
These people come here just to derail a thread they don't agree with. I find it funny that not many people notice the same group walking from thread to thread with torches and pitch forks just looking to discourage anyone from posting anything informative.

I always wondered why the skeptics who do not believe in UFO's and such come to ATS and bash those on the topic! WTF?? If you don't agree with or like teh topic, why bother posting?

reply to post by QuantumDisciple


he was making a comparison, but the topic was the article the thread was named after, so the rise and fall of the article should be based on the article not the poster's comparisons. those are secondary. true?

A) had you clicked the first link in the post you would have seen the title was verbatim from the news source
B) ATS policy states we must use original headlines

A) Does not make it any less misleading.
b) Applies to threads posted in Alternative Breaking News. Your example was posted in A&U

Yet the story was real

Yet the story was incorrect.

David Icke on Alex Jones is good reason to ignore anything said in the video.

If I was working for TPTB, I would hire a handful of people to play the lunatic and make sure attention is diverted

You think Rajaten is working for TPTB since he's promoting the lunatic (your word) as a reference?

Maybe it would be harder to derail a topic if the information actually had some substance and weight to it. We all have our speculations. We all have our opinions. But talking about them is like discussing dreams. There's just nothing to hang on to, and it gets very boring, very fast.

All the people here who only want affirmation of their own beliefs or feelings just need to go over to some other site where everybody's idea is wonderful, and nobody ever questions anything. Even they would get bored by it pretty quickly.

Personally, I'm my own Devil's advocate. Whenever I get thinking like I know something, I challenge myself to do more research, listen to the other side, reassess and reevaluate. A lot of people don't like to do that, though. They just want to be told they're right and smart and a genius and special. Well, whatever makes people happy, I guess...

reply to post by Blue Shift


if all the ufo afficiandos left, wouldn't be long before you wouldn't have a place to visit either. if you're bored, maybe you should go read a good technical manual. i hear they are really interesting.

Well allow me to apologize. This is my 3rd day as a member on ATS, I'm still learning how this board works. It was just a few hours ago I learned what flagging was all about. I certainly didn't mean to derail a new story. I will refrain from this type of behavior in future posts. Sorry guys

Originally posted by QuantumDisciple
If I started a News thread and then tried to help substanciate it by using Daffy Duck I would expect ATSers to point out Daffy isn't a credible source for news.

Oh but you are mistaken... It would depend what thread Daffy is providing evidence for.

Lets say for example that there is a thread about Planet X well in that case quoting Daffy Duck would be very valid because he coined the term "Planet X" long before Sitchin et al came along

Duck Dodgers in the 24½th (twenty-fourth and a half) Century is a Merrie Melodies cartoon created in 1952 and released on July 25, 1953, starring Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent.

en.wikipedia.org...

So here I have a perfect case where Daffy Duck dates when Planet X came into popular usage

Sure tossing odd stuff into the mix will get reactions... but those reactions should not turn out to be the main focus of the thread. Did you even read the original article the post was about? If so kudos for looking, if not you just proved my point.

And yes I know Daffy's WRITERS did the work... but then Bush has speech writers too

reply to post by zorgon


I thought this was a better way of killing the news story:

Existing thread here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...


Please add further comments to the ongoing discussion.
Thank you







-thread closed-

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Chadwickus
I thought this was a better way of killing the news story:

Surely your not suggesting that anyone at ATS would do such a thing... to kill a story?

Now moving it to skunkworks... that might work

reply to post by zorgon

Lets say for example that there is a thread about Planet X well in that case quoting Daffy Duck would be very valid because he coined the term "Planet X" long before Sitchin et al came along

Not Daffy, Percy. A long time before Daffy came along.

Percival Lowell, most well known as a proponent for canals on Mars, built a private observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Lowell called his hypothetical planet Planet X, and performed several searches for it, without success. Lowell's first search for Planet X came to an end in 1909, but in 1913 he started a second search, with a new prediction of Planet X: epoch 1850-01-01, mean long 11.67 deg, perih. long 186, eccentricity 0.228, mean dist 47.5 a.u. long arc node 110.99 deg, inclination 7.30 deg, mass 1/21000 solar masses. Lowell and others searched in vain for this Planet X in 1913-1915. In 1915, Lowell published his theoretical results of Planet X.

nineplanets.org...