As a follow-up to my story on Friday, “Skeptologists Attack Ufologists“: in that article I published Stanton Friedman’s response to ‘skeptologist’ Brian Dunning’s original criticism of the Betty and Barney Hill story. Stan has since sent me a quick response to Dunning’s subsequent ‘hit piece’ on him personally (“Stanton Friedman Doesn’t Like Me“) – I’ve reprinted Stan’s email below in its entirety with his permission.
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Brian Dunning Running for Top UFO Debunker
Debunker Brian Dunning must be congratulated for adhering so closely to the basic rules for debunking: A. What the public doesn’t know, I won’t tell them. B. Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up. C. If one can’t attack the data, attack the people. D. Do one’s research by proclamation, investigation is too much trouble.
He demonstrated these in his off the wall attack on Skeptoid on the Betty and Barney Hill case about which I have written a detailed critique. Then he reacted like a spoiled brat caught with his hand in the cookie charge by insulting me after hearing on a radio station that I had said his piece was loaded with false claims. He said Friedman was “the principal Author of the Roswell, Travis Walton, and Betty and Barney Hill UFO mythologies”. I haven’t written any mythologies and certainly didn’t write a book about Travis Walton. More: “he wrote the most significant books inventing the most popular stories”. Wow, I am impressed. He must be jealous of my being a nuclear physicist.. “in fact his only career since 1970, was writing UFO books”. I must be a very slow writer. My first book, “Crash at Corona”, co-authored with Don Berliner, was published in 1992. My second book “TOP SECRET/MAJIC” was published in 1997. “Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience”, co-authored with Kathleen Marden, Betty’s niece, was published in 2007. My most recent book “Flying Saucers and Science” was published in June, 2008. He quite obviously hadn’t read “Captured!” and I seriously doubt if he has read any of the others either. He thinks TV producers should “call a spade a spade and call me an “Obsessed UFO Wacko”. He then makes the out of this world claim that his claims in his skeptical piece “are corroborated by Stanton Friedman’s own books.” This is hogwash to the 4th power.
He says “the facts of the case aren’t really in question [so why didn’t he get them right?], it’s the interpretation of the facts that are. Betty Hill spent two years writing a UFO story and sharing it with her husband, and then when asked about that story under hypnosis, Barney Hill was able to rattle it off pretty much as she wrote it”. This is a total and complete lie as he and anybody else would know if he had read “Captured”. I can only wonder what the source for this completely wrong claim was. Dunning calls me “a successful author busy with book tours and UFO conventions”. Fact is I have never done a book tour. I have spoken at over 600 colleges and 100 professional groups. After 1970 and prior to “Crash at Corona”, I was involved in a lot of professional activities. I worked on the commissioning of the Pt. Lepreau nuclear generating station. I measured radon levels in houses and wells in the Fredericton area. I did a study for the Canadian Electrical Association on “The Recovery and Utilization of Waste Heat from Power-plants”(visiting a number of facilities) and another for them on “The Use of Electron Beams to Treat Flue Gas.” I did a study “Future Technology Scenarios for New Brunswick” for the Province, and other studies on food irradiation, and seed stimulation. I gave professional papers at meetings of the European Society for Nuclear methods in Agriculture in Piacenza, Italy, and Warsaw, Poland, among others.
So it is clear Brian Dunning is a skilled liar, not a skeptic. He deserves “Debunker of the Year” award. And he should apologize to his readers and me for gross misrepresentation.
