Why aren't the newspapers reporting correctly about this phenomenon?
I admit that is what one would expect... However, my own experience is twofold. First of all, many journalists are not really interested in bringing objective news. I have met quite a few, and must admit that - unfortunately - this is the way it is. Except a few, who are generally young and enthusiastic about their profession, most journalists are sceptical and biased. They have formed their opinion before talking to researchers, and they certainly don't feel like going through scientific reports that are difficult to read.
A few years ago I read in a Dutch newspaper an article about a crop circle. The tone of the article was rather giggly, and the one that followed (and printed a few days later) was utterly mocking. The headline was: "Crop Circle Mystery Solved". It told the story of a lady who lived near the formation, and who said she had heard a heavy throbbing sound above the field that night. Furthermore she had seen lights. Her conclusion: it was a helicopter. The journalist's conclusion: crop circles are made by helicopters...
© Van den Anker en Eitjes
One would think that an observing and right-thinking person would notice that the direction in which the crop had been flattened did not correspond with the direction in which the blades of a helicopter rotate. Furthermore the witness's observation might be correct, but not her conclusion. Unfortunately this did not occur to the journalist...
It is at this sad level where most journalists seems to be stuck.
I know from my own experience that the facts do not easily get through to a close-minded person. Furthermore most journalists get their 'news'-items from information sources such as archives. When a crop circle is reported, they dive into the archives and quote obsolete and erroneous information in the papers. Of course, it would be so much better if they simply checked the internet for the current knowlegde about this phenomenon, but that takes time (interviewing a researcher takes even more time) and time is precisely what journalists often lack. And so, a piece from the archives is preferred, for practical reasons...
My second experience is that those journalists who do wish to print an open and interesting article in the papers, are often called back by their editors. I have seen this happen both in England and in the Netherlands. The journalist is told that "this kind of nonsense does not belong in this newspaper", and the article is quickly replaced by a standard piece of rubbish from the archives or by an article that deals with a totally different subject.
Many people believe that there is a politics of systematic denial and debunking among the press, imposed upon by higher levels of the social hierarchy, where one does everything possible to prevent the truth about the crop circle phenomenon to come out and be known to the public. Although I have not seen hard proof for this yet, I must admit that this has occurred to me. The attitude of the press simply makes it difficult not to believe just that...
(More about my own experiences with 'the inscrutable ways of the press', see
