Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 30th, 2006
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.