BFRO Gives Advice To Malaysia

The new BFRO comments have more the appearance of a copy of an email sent to Vincent Chow or some one in Malaysia than an editorial directed at the public. Nevertheless, it says a good deal about the current flavor that exists within the BFRO organization as personified by its director, Matt Moneymaker, during these troubled days in which important members are leaving. How is it helpful in speaking to the Malaysians to use sarcastically a phrase like "many splendored things"?

The BFRO has always taken an elitist Western approach in dealing with Malaysian sources, giving them advice and BFRO "insights" on how the Johor investigations should be conducted. The BFRO, mostly as a front to the opinion of one man, has extended this international "advice giving" recently to Nepal, as noted on April 22. Some of the BFRO’s advice, as we have seen, is neither cautious nor factually-based in historical reality.

This new BFRO commentary shows an ugly side to the BFRO that only those within and who have left the group have known about for years. While we may agree with the measured caution expressed, it is the continued nature of the BFRO’s tone and personal level of attacks that is disturbing.

This commentary unfortunately demonstrates why others are questioning the BFRO mission and how vinegar can be its true nature. Such seems to be especially the reality after Penn & Teller fooled them with the fake Sonoma videotape. The BFRO rushed to comment on the Penn & Teller hoax claim in a previous "editorial," declaring that the Penn & Teller statements were false. When it became obvious that, indeed, Penn & Teller had pulled off a hoax, that BFRO commentary was deleted from their site, although it exists as a historical item here and here.

Unfortunately, as has become apparent from how the BFRO issues their paternal and colonial statements to the public on many topics lately, they are hardly in a position any longer to be the authority they feel they are.

Sadly, this most recent "editorial" casts to the world, for all to see, the full nature of the petty and bitter side of organized Bigfootry via the BFRO’s own website.

This would be a bigger story if just one of the alleged photos were shown during the press conference.

We’re assuming your objectives with this book are worldwide interest, widespread acceptance, and the many splendored things that come along with all that. How could these objectives be hindered by releasing one good photo early on, if you’re already giving a press conference about the book? Why not just show one piece of the material?

It’s definitely not a "best practice" among real scientists (as opposed to non-scientist authors who call themselves cryptozoologists) to be melodramatic about photos without actually showing them.

Public expectations about the unseen photos (assuming they are authentic) are bound to rise quickly beyond the actually clarity of the images.

The photos will inevitably fall short of what people imagined. You need to set expectations appropriately from the beginning.

Best to avoid creating false expectations. If you can’t show the photos yet, then you should avoid making a big deal about them.

The copyright owner has nothing to lose by releasing one image, but has everything to gain, especially if there is more than one image.

One good image will sell the book better than 1,000 news conferences or 5 "pulp cryptozoology" bloggers.

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.

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