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Actually, there was more to it than satire and comedy. WWN was made into what it was by the same guy as was behind the creation of the National Enquirer as a t
by kromem 3y ago
Actually, there was more to it than satire and comedy.
WWN was made into what it was by the same guy as was behind the creation of the National Enquirer as a tabloid - Gene Pope.
A graduate of MIT in just 3 years, when he bought up the Enquirer he'd been employed in the CIA's psychological warfare department immediately prior.
This was in 1952, the same year the CIA and other military groups met to discuss the increase in UFO sightings (like the ones making front page news over Washington DC that same year), and started project Blue Book.
Suddenly Gene Pope buys up a struggling periodical, turns it into a tabloid putting stories of UFO sightings next to sightings of Elvis being alive. This was expanded in 1979 to the WWN, where the paired stories became even more outrageous (Bat Boy).
For decades the mere mention of UFOs was typically associated with tin foil hats, and was the result of a likely intentional domestic propaganda effort that took on legs of its own as successful tabloids in their own right.
- kimixa 3y agoTo this day the term "UFO" tends to be related to "Alien Flying Saucers", rather than "Exaggerated reports of military testing", which seems to be the most related facts we know decades later.
- mc32 3y agoI think despite the bizarre and made up stories on occasion the national enquirer has actually dug up some good scoops. Not often… but it’s surprising! Here are some of the choicest scoops: https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan-lambert https://www.ranker.com/list/national-enquirer-real-news/evan... I think they also outed several celebrities over the years back when it was taboo.
- watersb 3y ago> This was in 1952... sightings of Elvis being alive. Remarkably, rumors of Elvis being alive persisted until 1977!
- ricksunny 3y agoFascinating, and concerning in light of Grusch. Given this, (which I concur about just from my brief review of Pope & National Enquirer wikipedia articles), then I'd be interested in seeing a data science approach to quantifying proportion of UFO coverage in the Enquirer year by year since its founding, as well as some measure of 'outlandishness' across its entire coverage base over the same period. As a consumer in supermarkets, it's hard to overstate how powerful the effect of stifling rational interest in the UFO/ UAP topic is when one passes those tabloids in the checkout line every week, which contain any number of random claims in the headlines alongside presumably legitimate and illegitimate UFO-related coverage.
- yencabulator 3y ago> the same year the CIA and other military groups met to discuss the increase in UFO sightings I read that as CIA and other military groups met to discuss increasing the UFO sightings and didn't blink an eye, it fit in so well.