Ghost Hunters

[Spinderella]

whitefalcon said:

Nope, that won't be shown on TV.

*sniff* Buy whhhhhhy! *bawls*

Heh.

But seriously, why?

[Shanmac]

Why wouldn't they show the gate/evil ghost episode?

[kostgard]

While poking around reading about these guys, I am really amazed at the amount of vitriol aimed at these guys in some places. I noticed mostly because one has popped up at TWoP again (one showed up a while back and almost got the thread shut down). They usually don't get too bad there because the mods keep an eye on them, but in other places they are downright vicious.

If you don't believe in this stuff, that's fine. Don't watch the show. But these people search the internet for discussions on them so they can drop in and slam them. They are convinced that everything is faked and Jason and Grant are evil personified (and Grant is apparently the one who fakes most of the stuff).

If they are faking (and I don't think they are), they aren't really hurting anyone. They don't charge for their services. They aren't planting any ideas in their clients heads that weren't there in the first place (or else they never would have called them in the first place), and it wouldn't exactly be the first reality show that was less than truthful. What could they gain by faking? Money and fame, I guess. What would they lose by faking? Money, fame, and a whole hell of a lot more. I really don't see how it is in their favor to fake the events on the show.

Someone over at TWoP said that most of the "haters" are paranormal investigators themselves who are jus jellus. I thought that was an odd idea at first, but it would explain a lot of the vitriol. There seems to be much more than "I don't believe in ghosts" going on and it may explain why some of these people act like Jason and Grant ran over their grandmother. Plus I think I remember Leenerbups mentioning that people in that field can get uber-competitive and go a little nuts with it.

While I do think they sometimes get too excited about stuff that I think is nothing, I don't think they are faking anything. They were around long before SciFi came knocking, and they have way too much to lose by being frauds. Plus it seems that if everything was a hoax, someone - former TAPS member, former cameraman - would have stepped forward and spilled the beans, but that hasn't happened yet.

[Smilla]

Oh, my God. This:

Other cases ranged from a notoriously haunted hotel that was plagued only by a rigged mirror with a mask behind it and a tape recording of an eerie laugh, to a woman who was enamored with Hawes and cornered him in the basement when the show came to investigate.

and this

The two said the scariest things they experience are often the homeowners. The TV crew bolted from a woman's home where she was holding a loaded shotgun behind the door and had a .357 magnum under her pillow.

are things I always suspected were going on behind the scenes. Not surprised to get some kind of confirmation about that. Holy shit.

[thingamajig]

Did any of you watch Paranormal State last night? Now there's a show that needs plenty of mocking. Not as bad as Most Haunted, but we laughed quite a bit.

[Spinderella]

thingamajig said:

Did any of you watch Paranormal State last night? Now there's a show that needs plenty of mocking. Not as bad as Most Haunted, but we laughed quite a bit.

Oooh, really? I forgot to TIVO it, as it looked a little interesting.

That bad, eh? I'll have to check it out next time when I need a giggle.

And, kostgard - kudos! I feel exactly the same. There is just too much at stake, as they do have a day job and obviously could suffer their reps.

[kostgard]

I put my comments on Paranormal state in the "Ghosts" thread and I only saw the first half, but yeah - it was pretty damn terrible.

[Smilla]

I just spent ten minutes ripping it a new one in the Ghosts/Supernatural thread. It's tabloidy trash and needs to die ASAP. (I actually hope we don't start a thread on it.)

[thingamajig]

I just replied over there. Trash is right! I've gotten fed up with a lot of aspects of Ghost Hunters lately, but Paranormal State certainly made TAPS look 1000X better in my eyes last night.

[kostgard]

Yeah, most of my problems with Ghost Hunters really has to do with the production and not the actual investigations. On Paranormal State the "investigations" were total crap - in addition to annoying production.