Sightings - S3E06 - “Making of a Hoax” - October 16th, 1994
“On past episodes, Sightings investigated video tape of an alleged UFO supplied by an anonymous source known only as ‘Guardian’. At first the so-called Guardian tape of what appears to be a UFO crash-landed looked very convincing. But as we moved deeper into the investigation, our questions started to outnumber the answers...”
Hell yeah we're back in Ontario for another look at my favorite UFO case of all time, Guardian, and how it was a hoax
“What you have is a little rural community in eastern Ontario close to Ottawa called Manion Corners...in 1991, somebody decided they would put together this UFO hoax and put out a video.”
After the mysterious tape was sent to the Sightings offices...
...and also sent to the Unsolved Mysteries offices, who beat Sightings to the air by a week everything looked convincing. Then Guardian sent more "evidence" that...didn't.
The alien photos? Bad. The documents...?
This segment doesn't get into the even more ludicrous claims made in the documents, such as a conspiracy by the aliens to conquer Earth with China's help.
And so an experiment is convened.
First, we're shown how easy it is to generate a convincing looking flying saucer image. Then we proceed to the full demonstration of how to recreate Guardian.
The alien photos, Tim White notes with scorn, are easy to recreate...
...while they use fog machines, a tarp-covered truck, and a model helicopter to try to recreate Guardian.
The result? Not 100%, but not too bad. Later in 1995, MUFON Canada would release a full report claiming the hoax was accomplished with lights strapped to a truck and fingering a local named Bobby Charlebois as the likely identity of Guardian.
We talk with Michael Lindemann of the 20/20 Group; Google pulls up references to this group hyping up legends about underground tunnels, reposted on websites with names like Reptilian Agenda, and differ on if his group is the 2020 Group or the 20/20 Group. He influences Tim White's conclusion, a healthy dose of rationality:
"Some experts now believe Guardian was part of the UFO government's rumored UFO disinformation program. They believe that hoaxes and absurd tabloid headlines are planted by the Pentagon to discredit UFOlogists and to keep the prying eyes of the public away from what they're really doing."
