Weeding out the Hoaxes
Posted by: Nick Redfern on May 2nd, 2012
Over at Mysterious Universe, I have a new post on what is without doubt the strangest Bigfoot-themed story to have ever crossed my path. And, I can say for sure, I have certainly crossed paths with more than a few weird tales in my time!
This one turned out to be nothing more than a seriously strange, and near-surreal, hoax that occurred in England’s Cannock Chase woods in 2006 – a place that has been the site of a large number of undeniably legitimate encounters with unknown and out-of-place animals over the last century or so.
But, while the debunkers use tiresome incidents like this one as ammunition to support their conclusions that such entities have no basis in reality, as I note in my article: “…this case does serve to demonstrate that when it comes to Bigfoot, yes, hoaxing does occur. But, when it does, the onus is upon us – the Fortean community – to reveal those cases for what they are. But, there’s something else we need to stress: Yes, hoaxes do occur, but…this does not negate the large body of credible data that is about as far away from hoaxing as it’s possible to imagine.”
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
Hear, hear and well said.
That old dodge by scoftics has bugged me since its first use. Using one hoax or mis-sighting to throw out the entire library of sightings–it’s not valid as an argument, nor is it good science.
I’m all for ferreting out the shenanigans, but just because people do hoax and misidentify does not mean people aren’t seeing legitimate cryptids. Yeah.
One of my earmarks of a scientist unacquainted with evidence:
“One can’t be sure about the sasquatch. There are so many hoaxes…”
The hoaxes are over HERE; the un-debunked and therefore legitimate evidence, way over THERE.
Anyone who has read sasquatch sighting reports knows that these people are not seeing men in suits. They describe physical characteristics and behaviors that are clearly non-human, and feats that would be impossible for an Olympic champ in a track suit, much less a chump in an ape suit.