September 8, 2008
Is there a hint in today’s New York Times of how a redefining is taking place by the mainstream media regarding how editors and reporters will approach cryptozoology stories, post-Georgia hoax? Has an overt future motive been revealed in this article on the Jersey Devil?
Do you think, from left, Belinda Connolly, Laura Leuter, Charley Lolio and Katie Brown, were surprised to see themselves in the paper this morning?
In this morning’s editions of The New York Times, there is a profile of the Devil Hunters, the “official researchers” of the Jersey Devil, “a shy specimen of cryptozoology that has haunted these parts long enough to have sent tricornered hats spinning from the mops of frightened colonists.”
The piece seems strangely out-of-place in this flagship media giant. It is about a nice group of young folks with an interest in the mystery. Nevertheless, the paper seems to want to turn this story into some kind of statement on a deeper psychological level.
With the recent events, the Times couldn’t help but frame their story editorially. For example, we find this in the essay:
Why do we wish for such things?
Why do we root for the discovery of beings that would subvert our understanding of the natural order? Why, oh why, would a group of people actually hope that somewhere in the dark expanse, beyond the fluorescent lights of a New Jersey strip mall, there frolics — a devil?
This curious desire was in full evidence recently when two men announced their discovery of a half-ape, half-human carcass in the backwoods of Georgia: an ex-Bigfoot that had ceased to be. They placed the remains in a freezer and promised that DNA analysis would conclusively prove the existence of this legendary creature.
That the supposed Bigfoot carcass turned out to be a defrosting rubber costume stuffed with animal entrails is less instructive than the way news outlets reported the matter — first with a kind of hopeful skepticism, then, once the hoax was exposed, with a dismissive, we-knew-it-all-along harrumph.
And how is this Jersey Devil article also not filled with some of these same elements of optimism for the unknown and distaste for it, too?
Has not this article been rather obvious as to why it was written? Perhaps it merely was so the newspaper reporter and editor could have a platform for what they really wanted to record, at the very end?
The group routinely receives calls, including more than a few from people wanting to report something seen decades ago. A woman named Gretchen, for example, reported seeing a devil-like creature while driving with her family through the Pine Barrens in 1966. It was the size of a man, she said, with small horns, a long tail and wings that were “not leathery bat wings but not big fluffy angel wings” either.
This year alone, there have been at least 10 possible encounters, including a horselike creature flying over Jackson and a shrieking, winged animal perched on a chicken coop in Eldora. Not long ago a woman reported seeing “a very large creature with red-orange eyes” flying out of the woods along the Garden State Parkway in Seaville.
So vivid. So real. So wishing it were true.
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, Breaking News, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Folklore, Hoaxes, Winged Weirdies