January 30, 2006

ABC Ridicules Bigfoot & Travel Channel Doesn’t

Over the weekend and into today, you’ve probably continued to read and hear a great deal about the so-called "Bigfoot" activity in Malaysia. Most of the articles have been rehashed treatments. Some have been reasonable, especially the news items written closer to the core of the activities. A few have even contained new info, as already mentioned here.

But unfortunately, now that the Americans are more widely reporting on it, with increased frequently, the anchor people are laughing about it and saying things like the "family of the cameraman who filmed the Bigfoot with Roger Patterson," confessed it was all a hoax. See what ABC News broadcast, for example, via this link.

Since Roger Patterson filmed the Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, and Bob Gimlin stood by with a gun, the "cameraman" was Roger Patterson. Neither his family or Gimlin or anyone truly linked to the footage has said anything like that. Various people have come forward "claiming" they know more than they probably do, and have tried to debunk the film with stories about them being in the suit. Or that there was a zipper on it. Or that they know this or that. None of those claims (critically surveyed here) have panned out. But then, what do you expect from news anchors trying to joke about a story they only know about after a 30 second reading of a press release? Or the showing of a fifth generation doctored version of the Patterson-Gimlin footage?

The ridicule curtain backlash begins.

See also how the media treated the Ray Wallace story in a similar fashion, "Is Bigfoot Really Dead?".

On an upbeat note: Be sure to watch the Travel Channel’s "Weird Travels" today (Jan 30) for three programs on cryptozoology (check your local listings). The ones on "Bigfoot" and "Creepy Creatures" are new for this month. The one on "Lake Monsters" is also recent, from last fall.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Bigfoot, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Malaysian Bigfoot