Project Condign (DEFE 24/2090)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## WHY LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY?

Silly Season: 'the summer month of August is traditionally viewed as journalism's silly season, in which there is very little news, allowing senior editorial staff in particular to take holidays. Politicians are in the middle of their long break from Parliamentary duty and government offices are short-staffed, suggesting nothing of major importance is likely to happen and resulting in the media turning to the reporting of more trivial matters.' (The Guardian, 31 July 2002).

In July 2007 Britain's favourite tabloid tried to persuade us that a great white shark had visited the normally serene Cornish coast, complete with wobbly video clips showing sinister dark fins breaking the waves. The Sun's shark mania soon evaporated when it was revealed the footage was taken in Cape Town, not St Ives.

In 2008 the silly season arrived earlier than usual and for most of June Jaws mania was swapped for an invasion by 'the Alien Army'. For certain sections of the media UFOs have now become perennial silly season fodder. Tabloid newspapers in particular will print anything UFO-related without any iota of critical scrutiny. As Nick Davies points out in Flat Earth News, this type of story is cheap and easy to cover and gives the punters what they want.

During the spring of 2008, with the MoD files story simmering away and the imminent release of a new X-file movie, it was inevitable that UFOs would soon be back in force. As one UFO witness caught up in the hype told me: "a journalist intuitively seemed to understand this when he said to me: 'it's about time we had another UFO story.' "

Add a flotilla of sky lanterns to the heady brew and - hey presto - a media-created UFO flap was upon us. For a full week in June The Sun filled its pages with exciting tales of UFOs bothering police helicopters and buzzing bemused squaddies. And when these tales dried up there was an army of eager readers on hand to stoke the embers by sending in their own grainy images of lights in the sky filmed on mobile phones and camcorders.

This summer's UFO mania kicked off on 20 June with a Sun exclusive. The crew of the South Wales police helicopter were confronted by a 'flying saucer shaped' object as they approached their landing pad at just 500 feet. According to 'an anonymous source' the pilot had to bank sharply to avoid a collision above St Athan, near Cardiff International Airport, shortly after midnight on 8 June. The pilot then set off across the Bristol Channel in hot pursuit of the intruder, but had to turn back when fuel ran low over the North Devon coast. Most police copters carry hi-tech equipment such as surveillance cameras but nothing was captured on film which suggests this was a fleeting observation. Even stranger, although the UFO - described as 'circled by flashing lights' - was clearly visible to the naked eye, nothing could be seen through the crew's night-vision goggles. They reported their encounter to senior officers who then passed it "to Britain's UFO investigators." Within hours of publication on the Sun's website the story was republished around the world.

The police, by now inundated with press inquiries, dismissed The Sun's story as factually