Tuesday 29 January 2013

Buzz Aldrin - Interesting choice of words...

Thanks to our friends at Open Minds I saw an article in the Alaska Dispatch about Buzz Aldrin visiting a university in Alaska. The only line of interest to me in the article was in connection with one of the questions allegedly asked by students:- "Did he see a UFO? Probably not."

Now this line is arguably easy to dismiss to most people (especially those with no interest in UFOs!). Except that:-

  • first the headline of the article is the strangely worded "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin mum on whether he saw a UFO" (shouldn't it have been "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin keeps mum on whether he saw a UFO"?) A cynical attempt to get more web-clicks? Bit of a con if you ask me as there is almost nothing on the subject in the article except the above two sentences;

  • Buzz Aldrin has been quite outspoken in the past about seeing 'UFOs' - why be reluctant to discuss them now? I suppose if I were in Mr Aldrin's shoes, I would be getting fed up with all the UFO questions but these were students asking in this case. They can be forgiven for asking such a question and be more deserving of a (perhaps less vague) response. Perhaps he had to be on his 'best behaviour' in order to 'inspire' the students; and

  • there's the annoying misuse of the initials 'U.F.O.' The question - if indeed it is quoted verbatim, and is not just lazy reportage - should have been "Did he see aliens/alien craft?" Technically if Mr Aldrin had seen objects in space that neither he (nor anyone else) could identify then these would have been UFOs. If he was saying that 'he didn't see a UFO' does that mean he saw nothing at all, or that whatever he did see was clearly identifiable?

Of course, only those present in the room with him know what Buzz Aldrin did and didn't say on the day. For those of us who weren't there, we are reliant upon unexceptional journalism  to report the event - and as is almost always the case with the media - this means things are either inaccurately reported or taken out of context.

Or maybe I'm just being over-analytical and there was nothing of note to report anyway!




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