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From: Vince_Johnson_at_TENSOR__HSTN@ccmailsmtp.hstn.expl.pgs.com
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 97 15:21:46 cst
Fwd Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 11:51:30 -0500
Subject: Re: Of Linda, Hopkins & The Post's loading dock

>Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 07:28:04 -0500
>From: Greg Sandow <gsandow@prodigy.net>
>To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
>Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Re: Of Linda, Hopkins & The Post's loading dock

In his defense of the Linda case, the esteemable Greg Sandow
wrote to the San Antonio Sasquatch:

>I know I've answered Dennis Stacy already, but there's one remaining
>point I ought to address.

>Dennis, imagining that the NY Post would get a juicy story if its
>delivery drivers saw the UFO that supposedly abducted Linda "Cortile"
>and Perez de Cuellar, first remarks:

>> It would take only one person
>> to notice same to alert everyone else in the parking lot to
>> it. In which case, in NY's competitive dog-eat-dog market, the
>> Post would have scored a sensational scoop. Instead, not a
>> peep.

>And later, he asks:

>> How much would a tabloid pay
>> for the headline: "I SAW THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UN
>> ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!"?

(snip)

>However, not even most supermarket tabloids would run headlines like the
>one Dennis imagines. The Enquirer did once write about UFOs, but now it
>sticks to celebrity gossip, and leaves UFO stories to its offshoot the
>Weekly World News, which makes them up. (And also to the WWN's
>infinitesmal competition, the Sun, which for all I know isn't even
>printed any more.) It's true that one of the lesser gossip tabloids did
>print a story about the de Cuellar abduction, but only because he denied
>it. The denial became a silly kind of celebrity news. I can't imagine
>any of the supermarket rags printing the allegation that de Cuellar was
>abducted, if the burden of the story was that it really happened. These
>papers walk a narrow line between sleaze and lawsuits, and almost never
>print anything substantial that they can't verify. The mere fact of
>witnesses claiming to see the abduction wouldn't count as verifcation.
>(And anyway, would the drivers have seen de Cuellar being taken?
>Please!)

Hi Greg,

I think you've overlooked two important points made by your own
statement:

      1) The sensational tabloid-style headline to which you
      refer ("I SAW THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UN ABDUCTED BY
      ALIENS!") is essentially the claim being made by Hopkins
      et al, isn't it?

      2) Supermarket tabloids apparently exercise greater
      journalistic integrity than Hopkins has in this case --
      since as you say "These papers ... almost never print
      anything substantial that they can't verify."

I don't think even Greg Sandow would classify the Linda case as
"verified" at this point.

Regards,

Vince