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From: Jerry Black <blackhole60@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 07:02:01 PDT
Fwd Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 10:40:47 -0400
Subject: 'Self-Proclaimed Leaders Of Ufology'


Mr. Jerome Clark;

I will respond to your petty complaints about my not referring
to Mr. Bruce Maccabee as Dr. Bruce Maccabee. In checking with a
young lady in the UFO field who is also an English scholar, she
has informed me that you are certainly correct about my use of
the terms 'Mister' and 'Doctor.' If I am going to use the word
"Mister" before Bruce Maccabee's name, that would be incorrect.
It should be "Doctor" Bruce Maccabee. I thank you for making
that English correction for me. However, she also told me that
if I do not use the word "Mister," and simply refer to him as
Bruce or Bruce Maccabee, it is perfectly acceptable not to use
the term "Doctor" in front of his name. This is what I will do
from this point forward: I will refer to him as Bruce or Bruce
Maccabee. Thank you for correcting me with this English lesson.

I would now like to refer to remarks you made about my comments
concerning the "self-proclaimed leaders of ufology".

You knew exactly what I meant, however I will explain that for
you and to all the internet readers. The "self-proclaimed
leaders of ufology" are those who appear most frequently on TV,
or appear at most of the UFO symposiums throughout the country.
In my opinion, you cannot go to any UFO symposium in the country
without seeing one or sometimes three of these people at that
particular symposium. So in my opinion, those "self-proclaimed
leaders of ufology" are those that the general public listens to
or hears most, whether it be on TV, radio or major symposia.
These people would be: Stanton Friedman, Budd Hopkins, Kevin
Randle, Linda Moulton Howe, Bruce Maccabee, Whitley Strieber and
Walt Andrus (even though Walt Andrus does not appear on national
television or radio frequently, he is a major figure in ufology,
being the leader of one of largest UFO organizations in
America).

Those people, Mr. Jerome Clark, are people I call the
"self-appointed leaders of ufology."

The general public looks to these people for the answers to
those cases that they see on national TV or radio: such as the
autopsy video, the Whitley Strieber story, or the Jonathon Reed
story (he claimed, on the Art Bell radio program to have killed
an alien). The public looks to these people to let them know
which of these stories are credible and which are not credible.
They certainly cannot depend on the television networks, with
shows such as Sightings and most recently the NBC special
Confirmation. The television media certainly does not lend
itself to giving the general public an objective look at the
national cases and letting them know, from an investigative
standpoint, whether these stories are credible or not. They are
not interested in credibility, as I have said many, many times
before, they are interested in ratings. The Whitley Strieber
show Confirmation was produced with no intent to authenticate
the Strieber claim of experiences with the visitors. Just
because he has written a book and is a well-established author,
they decided to do a special on TV using him as an executive
producer. So the general public cannot rely on TV to give them
the true answer to the cases that we see on TV and are written
in books.

Therefore, the general public relies on the Mutual UFO Network,
the Center for UFO Studies, and the "self-appointed leaders of
ufology."  In my opinion, neither of these aforementioned are
doing their jobs at keeping the general public informed of which
cases are credible and which cases do not deserve attention. I
also do not think the Mutual UFO Network and the "self-appointed
leaders of ufology" are doing a good, sound, scientific and
objective job when they do investigate these cases.

As you stated, Mr. Jerome Clark, your organization does not have
the time or money to really get into investigating current cases
out there in ufology, besides the fact of putting your opinion
of cases in your monthly journal. So I am not accusing you of
not doing a good job of investigating current cases, because as
you have told me: you are not doing "any" job of investigating
current UFO cases. You are simply making small reports in your
journal which are merely opinions.

While your friendship with some of these "self-proclaimed
leaders of ufology" may keep you from making certain remarks
about their work, it certainly doesn't stop me. I will continue
to keep making remarks that I feel is necessary as long as they
continue to do the job they are doing at this particular time.

I, however, agree with you that there are many people out there
who do a tremendous job who hardly get any ink, get no time on
national radio or TV, but do a tremendous job in trying to help
find the answer to the UFO phenomena. Some of those people are:
Jenny Randles, Tom Dueley, Ray Fowler, Dan Wright, Tom Adams,
Glenn Joyner, Mark Rodheigher, Rex Salisberry, and the list
could go on and on. But these people, because of family or other
responsibilities, do not have the time needed to allow
themselves to be leaders in the field of ufology and attend the
national symposia in the country, or to appear on national TV
or radio. I wish that some of these people would do so.

But, for the time being, we have to deal with those "self
proclaimed leaders of ufology" and the work they are doing.

Finally, Mr. Clark, you have said that honorable men have come
down on both sides of the case in Gulf Breeze, Florida. I
certainly agree that all the gentlemen and ladies mentioned as
"self-proclaimed leaders of ufology" are likely honorable
people, some of whom have earned Ph.D.'s. All that means is that
honorable men and women, some of whom have Ph.D's, can at times
be lousy UFO investigators.

Sincerely,
Jerry Black
6276 Taylor Pike
Blanchester, Ohio 45107 (513)
625-2613

Website: http://members.xoom.com/blackshole/

YOU CAN E-MAIL JERRY BLACK AT
blackhole60@hotmail.com