Subtleties of the Television Talk Show, Part I
In DR #10, we reviewed the major news media--print, radio and television--and showed how each could twist reality in their own special way. Strictly for the sake of science, Psychospy allowed himself to be turned into a minor media celebrity so we could report to our readers the sometimes dubious processes behind the scenes. There was a limit, however, to how low we would sink in the pursuit of knowledge. We would not take off our clothes for the camera, and we would not place ourselves in any situation where our credibility, reputation or dignity could be seriously trashed.
Now we can report that this barrier has been broken. In the next two issues of the Rat we will recount our first-hand experiences with the lowest form of mass media, the television talk show.

The Medium of Talk
Talk shows come in three basic formats. The rarest but most respectable is the SERIOUS ISSUES talk show exemplified by "Meet the Press," "Nightline" and the roundtable discussions on PBS-- maybe even "Larry King Live." They are dignified and serious, explore meaningful political and societal issues, and hardly anyone watches them.
The next rung down the ladder--vapid but benign--is the CELEBRITY CHAT talk show, like the "The Tonight Show," "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Arsenio Hall." Movie stars and Big Money authors pump their latest work in a non-confrontational environment designed only to promote laughs.

The last and lowest form of the genre is the HUMAN CONFLICT talk show. These syndicated programs always bear the name of the host, like "Oprah," "Geraldo," "Vicky" or "Leeza." He or she is a charismatic and camera-loving character, no doubt ruthless in real life, but blessed with the ability to convey warmth and sincerity on TV. The fodder for these shows is a steady diet of human suffering, crises, angst and tragedy. Former spouses and estranged friends face off against each other; grown men and women reveal to the parents their until-now-hidden perversities, and human oddities of all shapes and sizes present themselves for humiliation before a nationwide audience. The ultimate goal of these shows is the public expression of private feelings. They seek tears, anger, jealousy and graphic self-immolation recorded by the camera on a tight close-up. With a dozen such shows now in syndication, the competition is intense to seek out new forms of conflict and expose the latest narcissistic trends.

Talk shows are produced "live on tape" with minimal editing, and this presents special problems for a guest. In other forms of television, sound bites rule the show. It may seem artificial, but tight editing at least assures that each party has their say and only their finest bon mot will be used. The courteous speaker with a few good ideas can confidently compete with any extravagant, microphone-hogging blowhard, because most of what the blowhard says will be cut. In the almost-live talk show, the more reasonable speaker has to compete with the blowhard head on. There is no time for an orderly presentation of evidence; he who makes the most outrageous, confident and colorful claims, groundless or not, gains the camera's eye and controls the game.

If you have any shred of personal dignity and are asked to be a guest on a Human Conflict show, the best response is obvious: "Just Say No." Unless you are a masochist or a natural born actor, there is no way you can win in this format. We know it now; we knew it then, but sometimes, like Oedipus, you just can't stop the inevitable march of Fate....

Onward To Humiliation
The path to our own downfall was indirect. For several months, a number of journalists have been making the pilgrimage to Freedom Ridge, and we generally escort them as a sort of local public relations representative. We do not charge for this service, and we do not discriminate between journalists. If TASS or Penthouse or the Podunk Review came to call, we would treat them no differently than the New York Times.
In May, we got a call from a producer from the Montel Williams Show, one of the Human Conflict shows that we had never seen. It seems that "Montel," as he is known to the world, had promised on an earlier talk show that he would visit the border of Area 51. We told the producer that we would be willing to escort Montel and his crew to Freedom Ridge to tape a segment, but we declined an offer to come to New York to appear on the studio show. Montel's visit was originally scheduled for May 5 but was canceled at the last minute, and we breathed a sign of relief.

In August, the project was reactivated, we suspect as the result of the June 22 article in the New York Times. Montel's visit was scheduled for Aug. 16, and we were again asked if we would go to New York to appear on the later show. Again, we declined.

When Montel came to Rachel, he brought a Humvee, his producers and a film crew. We went through the usual script for the camera: Montel drives up to our Research Center, and we meet him in the driveway. Inside, we show him where we are going on the map, then we get in the car and drive the rugged road to Freedom Ridge. We had done it before with countless crews, but never so quickly and in so few "takes." When Montel arrived, there was no question that he was in charge. He asked no significant questions, and showed no particular interest in the secret base itself. We sensed that he came only because he said he would and that his primary aim was to film a sound bite on the ridge that said, "You see, I did what I promised."

As we rode down from Freedom Ridge in the Humvee with Montel and the producer, we were again asked if we would come to New York to appear on the talk show the following week, Aug. 23. We hesitated and were about to turn down the offer cold, when the producer uttered the only horrible words that could force us to comply.

Sean David Morton.

The Embodiment Of Evil
We first learned of Sean Morton over two years ago, before we came to Rachel. We had heard his enthusiastic endorsement of the Black Mailbox on a UFO video:
"Probably the most amazing thing about Area 51 is the fact that this is literally the only place in the world where you can go out and actually see flying saucers on a timetable basis. You can literally go out there on a Wednesday night between about seven and one a.m. and you'll see these things flying up and down the valley. It's absolutely amazing. On even a bad night you'll have ten, eleven, twelve sightings. On a good night--and I've been out there with friends of mine camping--on a good night the sky will just rip open with these things. You'll see anywhere between twenty to forty objects in a night testing over the base for anywhere from fifteen and forty minutes at a time."

We've lived near the border for over a year and a half now, are genuinely interested in UFOs and have spent countless days and nights in the desert; yet we haven't seen even ONE flying saucer, let alone scores. The logical explanation is that we arrived too late, after the saucers had been packed up and moved elsewhere. The trouble with this theory is that during the early part of our tenure, Sean Morton continued to bring tours to the area--at $99 a head--and reported UFOs everywhere.

In one celebrated incident in March 1993, Psychospy spent the night on White Sides, overlooking Groom Lake, with some aviation watchers and a writer from Popular Science. We were looking for the alleged Aurora spyplane--almost as ephemeral as flying saucers--but we saw nothing more than a few satellites, some distant aircraft strobes and an occasional meteor. The following was reported in the March 1994 Popular Science....

"Last March, three chilly airplane watchers with binoculars atop White Sides Mountain at this magic hour [4:45am] were tracking a 737 airliner approaching Groom Lake, as a fourth member of their group thawed out in his truck below. Parked on a knoll, he was next to a vanload of UFO seekers. They were lead by tour operator Sean Morton, whose leaflet described him as 'the world's foremost UFO researcher.'
"Morton donned a horned Viking helmet and from time to time pointed to the sky, exclaiming: 'Look at that one!' The airplane watcher trained his binoculars in the same direction but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Later, Morton's group became excited by what they perceived as an entire formation of UFOs; the airplane watcher's lenses revealed only stars. Finally, as the morning's first 737 made its gentle approach toward Groom Lake at 4:45, the UFO enthusiasts rejoiced at Old Faithful's appearance. Everyone had seen exactly what they hoped for."

In the beginning, when we were new to the area, we were generous to Sean and called him "fantasy prone." As we got to know him better and gained confidence in our own knowledge base, we came to mince no words. Sean is a deliberate con man. He recognizes as well as us the landing lights of a 737, but he knows that others can be fooled and taken for a $99 ride to see them. If anyone is spreading disinformation about Area 51, filling the air with noise to make the truth harder to grasp, it isn't sinister government agents; it's Sean David Morton pursuing only his own greed and self-aggrandizement.
We have worked hard over the past 18 months to undo the damage Sean has done and displace him from the Area 51 scene. Discrediting Sean isn't complicated: We simply quote his own words whenever we can. Sean is a broadly diversified charlatan, a self- proclaimed expert in faith healing, earthquake prediction, psychic prophesy and virtually every other New Age fad. We have no problem at all with him plying his trade within the confines of the state of California where he justly belongs, but when he proclaims himself the foremost authority on Area 51, we get territorial. We hope that our "Area 51 Viewers Guide" has reduced the gullibility of newcomers and made the environment less attractive for leeches like him. In fact, we haven't had a confirmed Morton sighting near the border in over a year. We heard from sources in California that he no longer gave tours to Area 51 because the saucers had been moved elsewhere--which was fine by us.

The saucers must have returned, however. As the recent Groom Lake publicity reached its peak, "The World's Foremost UFO Researcher" could not help but resurface to suck energy from it. In recent months, reports began to reach us that he had appeared as an Area 51 expert at UFO conferences, on radio talk shows and on the Montel Williams Show.

In the latter appearance, which was first broadcast in December 1993, Sean showed video footage of nighttime "UFOs" that he said he photographed "at great risk to my own life." As we viewed them later, one clip showed an isolated circle of light jumping around within the frame. It could have been any stationary out-of-focus light shot through a hand-held video camera. Notches seen on the top and bottom of the "disk" correspond to protrusions inside the lens assembly. In the other clip, only slightly out of focus, we saw the lights of a 737 landing on the Groom Lake airstrip. To Sean, it was "an object actually coming in from space." The time stamp in the corner said "4:49 am."

It was on this show that Montel promised to visit Area 51 escorted by Sean; yet when Montel finally made the trip eight months later, Sean was not invited. The producer told us that word had reached him from many sources that Sean was considered a fraud, that in addition to UFOs he also did psychic prophesies and that his claimed credentials were highly dubious. He and Montel felt that Sean had taken advantage of them and that by having him on the show they had inadvertently legitimized him.

But none of that prevented them from inviting him back as a guest the second studio show.

As we rode down in the Humvee from Freedom Ridge with Montel and the producer, the reality to us became crystal clear: If we did not appear on the Montel Williams Show, then Sean would have the stage all to himself and could continue to spread any sort of nonsense about Area 51. We felt that we had no choice. Either we did battle with this guy now, before he grew bigger, or we would be cleaning up his mess for many months to come.

Our Rapid Education
We had less than a week to prepare for the big show--nowhere near enough time to do all the research we needed. The first item of business was to actually watch the Montel Williams Show and familiarize ourselves with the format. We cranked up our satellite dish and surfed through the channels. On "Donahue": "Six Year Olds Who Sexually Harass Other Six Year Olds." On "Rolanda, a related topic: "Will Your Child Grow Up To Be A Serial Killer?" On "The Vicky Show," we heard that Sean Morton had just appeared as an expert on the prophesies of Nostradamus, but we were unable to catch that one.
The first Montel Williams Show we saw was, "Mistresses Who Want To End The Affair." On the stage, three women disguised by dark sunglasses explained why they had been attracted to married men. We could only tolerate about ten seconds at a time of this show, but when we tuned back, we found that the women had shed their sunglasses and revealed their true identities. Presumably, they had also revealed, or at least seriously compromised, the identities of the men they had been having the affairs with. When we tuned in again later, one of the three was having an angry argument with a fourth female guest. We guessed that this was the wife of one of the married men.

A friend sent us a tape of Montel's original UFO show in which Sean appeared as a "UFO Investigator" and Montel promised to visit. The show included an abductee, a witness to the "Kecksburg Incident," a former actress, WFUFOR Sean David Morton, a requisite skeptic, a pro-UFO filmmaker and--as if you hadn't guessed--that talk show regular Travis Walton. The show was conducted in the "expanding chairs" format. It started out with two guests alone on the stage, then more guests and chairs were added during each commercial break until there were seven chairs and seven squabbling speakers vying for attention on the platform. In this format, attention is diluted with each new chair, so the people who appear last, typically the skeptics, usually get only a few seconds of airtime. During the free-for-all of a seven-person debate, the camera always focuses on the most aggressive and charismatic guest--i.e. Sean David Morton.

The last chair to be filled was occupied by filmmaker Russ Estes, who the on-screen caption said, "Does Not Believe In UFOs." This is false. He is a disciplined UFO investigator who has devoted his career to making films on the subject, as well as exposing obvious frauds. What is true is that he "Does Not Believe In Sean Morton." In his few seconds of air time, he raised doubts about one of Morton's many fake credentials, his claimed "Doctor of Divinity" degree.

RUSS ESTES: "Montel, my biggest problem, and this is what I've run into over and over again, is the quality of the individual who is bringing me the message. You know, the-boy-that-cried-wolf syndrome is phenomenal in this field. You get people out there who are saying, I'm this, I'm that, and I hate to do this to you, Sean, but here's a guy right here who claims to be the Doctor, Reverend Sean David Morton. In his own biography, he claims to have gotten his Doctor of Divinity at--excuse me, it will take me one second...."

SEAN MORTON: "Berachah University."
RUSS ESTES: "Berachah University, Houston, Texas--the Berachah Church. I called them. They don't have any type of degrees that they give. They have Bible study at the best. He claims to have attended University of Southern California...."

MONTEL WILLIAMS: "So the point that you are making, Russ, is that there's a problem with the messenger, so therefore the message is not real."

RUSS ESTES: "How can you believe the message if the people lie to you from the start."

SEAN MORTON: "The thing I'd like to point out about Mr. Estes here is that if you don't like the message, you can shoot the messenger, and it's obvious to me that in the UFO field, we do this for free, we do this because we want to know the truth, because we have seen something...."

RUSS ESTES: "But does that mean you bogey up your credentials?"

SEAN MORTON (angry): "That is not true. You are flat-out lying to these people. I went to USC for four years."

Just then, the debate was cut off by a sloppy edit, and Sean's USC diploma appeared on the screen.
After watching the tape, we contacted Russ Estes. He said that the debate between he and Sean went on much longer than was shown on the screen. "Live on tape" does not mean totally unedited. This show went on for over two hours to obtain a one hour's worth of material. Sometimes, whole shows are thrown out when they don't work. Unfortunately, Estes made a misstep on the USC degree. As it turns out, this is just about the only authentic credential he has: a B.A. in Drama and Political Science. We certainly believe the Drama part: It's the last degree he ever needed.

The Doctor of Divinity degree is still phony, but in the talk show world, evidence counts for nothing; only emotions and presentation matter. Sean walked away from the show as a brave and knowledgeable crusader, legitimized by a promise from Montel to take his tour, and with the implied invitation to reappear on the show. Estes walked away alone, wasn't invited to return, and has since had to live down the "Does Not Believe in UFOs" moniker. Sean even had the delightful gall to send Estes a letter, through the producers...

Mr. Russ Estes
c/o Alex Williams [sic]
The Montel Williams Show
1500 Broadway Suite 700
New York, New York, 10036
Dear Russ:

I am going to assume that you are not a bold faced liar who is out for some kind of warped revenge, or a person who is just trying to make a buck off baseless slander.

Let's try to solve this like gentlemen - enclosed is a copy of my U.S.C. diploma. I have also called the school and my records are intact. The rest of your "research" on me is equally faulty.

I hope this solves out problem. If not, I have consulted my attorney and any further slander directed toward me through your video series or elsewhere, will result in action taken against you.

Yours Truly,
[BIG signature]
Sean Morton

Things were beginning to look grim for Psychospy. With the time of the taping drawing near, we hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of Sean David Morton and his path of destruction. Talking to our contacts, we saw that Sean had accumulated a vast audience of intimate enemies, more than we could possibly contact. If Sean sounds knowledgeable and occasionally has some meaningful information, it is because he has ripped it off from others. We were amused to find that there was even an reputable astrologer who hated Sean, who felt that Sean had stolen his predictions and passed them off as his own.
It seemed a futile exercise anyway. We knew all the evidence in the world wasn't going to matter when we actually faced off against Sean on camera. We were leaving behind our own comfortable medium of logic and data and stepping into his home turf--the talk show--where presentation counts more than content. We were obligated by our own ethics to speak only the simplest truths and the cautious assertions supported by data. Sean David Morton, bold faced liar that he is, faced no such constraints. He could spout any lie he wanted to sound important and get himself off the hook, and the only thing that mattered here was that he said it with apparent sincerity and that it held up for television's thirty second attention span. We knew that if we started to make an accusation about him, he would instantly sense the winds and make the same one against us with greater force. The ensuing argument would make he and us appear to be equals.

Sean knew all the buzzwords and cliches of the UFO movement and could spout the conventional wisdom much faster than we could. He knew how to sound sincere and reasonable and adapt instantly to the sentiments of any social circumstance. He was well-practiced at responding to inquisitions and had emerged from many without a scratch. Opposing him, all we had was a body of mundane knowledge about a very limited area of the desert. Sean was smooth and well- honed in his talk show delivery, and we were stumbling in for the first time to a medium where we really didn't want to be.

It was with these reservations and a sense of dark foreboding that we packed our bags and headed for New York City. There, in Times Square, we expected a titanic battle between Good and Evil, and things didn't look good for Good...