A McMinnville UFO article
has stirred some
up recently when I ran an image of Paul Trent’s
boy standing on
a ladder. The kid was perched up in the very
area where his father had taken two UFO pictures.
These pictures are believed my many today to have been hoaxed. The ‘ladder boy’
photo is a very provocative photo that could impact the authenticity of two
highly controversial UFOs photos made in Oregon in 1950 by farmer Trent.
DUPED BY A SPACE JOURNALIST: SAUCER SKEPTIC ADMITS TO
BEING THE SOURCE FOR THE ‘LADDER BOY’ PHOTO
James Oberg is a well-known space journalist who has professional ties to NASA .
Oberg admitted just earlier
today to researcher Lance Moody that he is indeed responsible for having posted
the incriminating ‘ladder boy photo’ on a website a long time ago. He has
agreed that was wrong to have done so.
Moody has conceded that Oberg
was “mistaken” to have posted the photo. We
can all certainly agree that it has caused many problems.
Oberg is known to be rabidly
skeptical about “things UFO.“ So much so that in 2009 Oberg deliberately
planted a troubling photo on an ATS website forum. It was a picture of Paul
Trent’s boy on a ladder. The kid had a mischievous
grin and was posed directly under the area
that a UFO had been captured on film by his father. Oberg is the first person to have ever placed this image
on the net. When Oberg was asked about the
origin of the photo, Oberg replied
that LIFE had ‘bought the rights,’- that the image had been ‘acquired’ by them. Of
course LIFE photographer Loomis Dean, who
went to the Trent farm, was a LIFE employee. His pictures did not have “rights” that could be “bought” or
“acquired.”
More importantly, Oberg did not
post the other LIFE Trent farm images, just the ‘ladder boy’ photo. Why? He had
to have known that there was a series of Trent farm photos, but he chose to
selectively post only the one that would immediately suggest a hoax.
OBERG’S ERROR REPEATED
Oberg’s “mistake” was apparently
repeated on another site some years later. I next saw the Oberg image posted this past summer on another well-known paranormal website, Unexplained Mysteries. A long-time, respected poster
there had reproduced
the ladder boy image, adding the statement: “from
the same roll of film as the UFO photos.”
LIFE ARCHIVE
I reviewed the online LIFE
gallery of work by photographer Loomis Dean before I had published the article.
There were several wonderful LIFE photos that Dean did over the years, but
nothing on McMinnville. An individual emailed me after the article had
appeared. He explained that the reason that I could not access the Trent farm
photos is because LIFE had since removed them from their site and had
apparently archived them. I could not get what I did not even know existed.
THAT IS IT
That is it, the sum total on the
matter. There was no ‘nefarious’ intent on my part despite what some have
maintained (and in sometimes unprofessional
and even profane
terms.)
And despite Oberg having posted
this very same image on the net before I did, no one had ever seen fit to
correct him in the three years in which he did so. Lance Moody has asked me for
an apology on this , I wonder if he asked the same of Oberg?
BOY ON A LADDER
The ‘boy on the ladder’ photo remains a provocative one, no
matter the provenance. And if you examine the photos in the LIFE series of the
Trent farm closely enough it becomes evident: it would be very easy place in
which to fake a UFO. And a ladder and a helpful kid would certainly come in
handy for a hoax…
AJB
Thank you for explaining the type of sources you regularly rely on.
ReplyDeleteOne question, Mr. Bragalia:
ReplyDeleteHow do you know Mr. Oberg placed that "boy on a ladder" photo, taken by Dean Loomis of LIFE magazine over a month after Paul Trent's two controversial "UFO" photos were taken?
Might Oberg have sincerely believed, perhaps in part due to his own confirmation bias or debunking perspective, that the "ladder boy" photo was taken by Trent, and from the same roll of film as the two "UFO" photos, as he said on an ATS forum over three years ago?
You allege an intentional provocation or "baiting" by Oberg -- what is the evidential basis for that opinion? Have you actually ever discussed this, if not beforehand, after it became known that photo was taken by Dean, not Trent, to support your contention, or not?
The issue, Melinda, has been addressed more fully at our other blog -- The UFO Iconoclast(s) -- http://ufocon.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteRR
Well, only insofar as Mr. Bragalia blames Oberg for "duping" him, without evidence that Mr. Oberg did so intentionally.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem, imho, that Bragalia still has not really conceded the matter of his _own_ responsibility, or possible lack of investigatory acumen, in using such a superficial, unvetted source, among a couple others, without prior attribution, as the basis for his initial blog post and related conclusions about the "boy on the ladder" photo as indicating to him it was taken by Paul Trent, which we all know now, thanks to David Rudiak, primarily, was at least incorrect.
But thanks for the cross-reference. I'll take a another look.
AJB-
ReplyDeleteThank you for the diligence you've displayed in explaining how you were taken in by Oberg's fiendishly convoluted internet photo disinformation!
Examining the rest of your blog posts, I can easily see why Dr. Randle asked you to join his Roswell Dream Team; Randle and his initial partner Dan Schmidt left a perfect research history of never being taken in by a Roswell witness. They obviously see in your work the same attention to detail.
Carry On;
K.P.