Page 78 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

78 Fake News and La Madera

Fake News and La

Madera

by Kevin Randle
www.kevinrandle.blogspot.ca

The UFO community has had to put up with
fake news for much more than a century. In 1897
there were a number of Great Airship stories that
were printed by newspapers. The reporters and
editors had to know that some of them were emphatic statement from Vigil, “They absolutely say it. At least he said he hadn’t said it.
fake, but the interest was there, the stories were misquoted me.” I presumed from that he was Is this overly important to the overall
about to disclaim everything in the story but that story? Not really, other than give us a look at
there and the bottom line is that newspapers
need to make money. Hype a story that doesn’t was not the case at all. Instead, his strong initial something that in the world today would be
reaction was sensitivity to the closing sentence called fake news. Vigil didn’t seem overly upset
deserve it, add details that the reporters invent
and a few quotes to make the story better or just of the story, in which the reporter took the by the quote given his reaction to it. But it also
make it up completely. liberty of inventing the quote that Vigil “hopes demonstrates that we, as investigators,
[sic] it never comes back.” The one other researchers, writers, and proponents of a point of
I am convinced, by the evidence, or the
lack there of, that the Aurora UFO crash of disclaimer was to the effect that he had said view must get this stuff right even when it is
April, 1897, is a hoax begun by a newspaper nothing to reporter Longo to suggest that “they something as inconsequential as that last line. E
really put the heat on Gallegos to keep his mouth must be careful or we can damage all the work
stringer who wanted to do something for his
town. Beyond the story printed in 1897, there shut about that sighting in La Madera.” we have done.
isn’t much evidence of the airship crash, until There is one other thing to say about all And, besides all that, I thought it was
this. I have been accused of misquoting people kind of an interesting anecdote…
UFO researchers became involved in the 1970s.
The point here, however, is that in today’s on a number of occasions, but those allegations
world, this would be labeled as fake news. were untrue. I had taped the interviews and the About Kevin Randle:
transcripts reflected what I had said they said. J. Kevin Randle has, for more than forty-
To bring this closer to us, here in 2018,
and keeping with the theme of the last few posts, Bond Johnson, the man who took most of the five years, studied the UFO phenomena in all its
photographs in General Ramey’s office after the various incarnations. His training by the Army
I looked at the La Madera UFO landing. This
was a sighting that took place in the hours after Roswell story broke in 1947, said that I had and the Air Force provides Randle with a keen
misquoted him on a number of points. When I insight into the operations and protocols of the
the Zamora sighting, and by hours, I mean
read the transcripts to him over the telephone, he military, their investigations into UFOs, and into
something like 30 hours after the landing in
Socorro. Orlando Gallegos said that just after said that he hadn’t said those things because a phenomenon that has puzzled people for more
12:30 a.m. on April 26, 1964, he had gone they weren’t true. He was convinced that I had than a century.
outside and about 200 yards away, saw misquoted him and he wanted to hear the tapes During his investigations, Randle has
so he could prove it. traveled the United States to interview hundreds
something he told Sheriff Martin Vigil, looked
I sent him an edited version so that he of witnesses who were involved in everything
to be as long as a telephone pole and as big a
round as a car. He said there was a bluish-white wouldn’t have to sit through the whole four from the Roswell, New Mexico crash of 1947, to
flame all around it and as Gallegos watched, the hours of interviews, but that had the quotes on the repeated radar sightings of UFOs over
flames went out. I provided a long report on this them. His response was to say that I had Washington, D.C. in 1952, to the latest of the
admitted to editing the tapes and he couldn’t abduction cases.
sighting in Encounter in the Desert, for those
who wish to learn more about the case. find all the quotes. So, I sent him all four hours,
The point here is not to talk about the plus the transcripts, twice, and the best he could Listen to past episodes of “A Different
sighting, but about one of the newspaper reports do was show that I had left an unimportant Perspective with Kevin Randle Radio Show” at
conjunction out of the transcripts. That, of www.xzbn.net. Past guests include: Don
that appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican on
December 28, 1969, some five years after the course, didn’t satisfy him and even though he Schmitt, Ben Moss, Curt Collins, Carol Rainey,
had the tapes, he continued to say that I had Don Ecker, Keith Chester, Ray Stafford, Rob
sighting. At the end of the story written by Ron
misquoted him. He had gone from telling the Mercer, Mark O’Connell, John Greenewald,
Longto, Vigil is quoted as saying, “I’m not
truth in the interviews I conducted to an assault Chris Rutkowski, Col. Charles Holt, Stan
going to speculate on just what was at La
Madera that night… but I hope it never comes on me, even when he knew he was wrong. Gordon, Nick Redfern, Don Ledger, Paul
back.” The point is that sometimes, when Kimball, Barry Greenwood, David Halperin,
Dr. James McDonald had seen the story people don’t like the direction of the quotes, Larry Lawson, Lorna Hunter, Jan Harzan, Jot
and wanted to check on the veracity of it, they claim to have been misquoted. Here, with Steele, Monte Shriver, Irena Scott, Peter
Vigil, I see no reason he would claim to have Robbins, Philip Mantle, Greg Bishop, David
meaning the quotes attributed to Vigil, not to
mention some of the facts of the case. He been misquoted on something as innocuous as Booher, Ben Moss, Tony Angiola, Derek
the last line in the story unless that was Bartholomaus, Adam Dew, Stephen Bassett,
couldn’t get Gallegos on the telephone but he
something that he hadn’t said. The quote is a Thomas Eddie Bullard and Michael Horn.
could find Vigil. In a March 12, 1970, letter,
McDonald wrote: nice wrap up for the story, a good final line, and
Upon explaining the purpose of my call the impression of the reporter might have been www.xzbn.net
and citing the press story, I got a laughing but that Vigil felt that way, but Vigil said he didn’t