“Best UFO Cases” by Isaac Koi
PART 8: Consensus lists : Paul Kimball’s expert poll (2005/6)
A documentary entitled “Best Evidence : Top Ten UFO Sightings” premiered on “Space: The Imagination Station” in
The opening words of that documentary, produced and directed by Paul Kimball, stated the following:
“In 2005 and 2006, documentary filmmaker Paul Kimball surveyed a select group of the world’s leading UFO researchers. He asked each of them for a list of their ten best UFO cases of all time. The cases were assigned point values, based on their rank, and then averaged together. Over seventy UFO incidents from around the world received votes. At the end of the process, the following ten incidents comprised the best evidence UFO cases of all time”.
(As discussed below, that statement is somewhat misleading…)
The documentary went on to list the following 10 cases:
1. RB-47 (1957) (Case 63 in Isaac Koi's “Top 100” article)
2. Tehran (1976) (Case 47 in Isaac Koi's “Top 100” article)
3. Rendlesham (1980) (Case 18 in Isaac Koi's “Top 100” article)
4. McMinnville (Trent case - 1950) (Case 17 in Isaac Koi's “Top 100” article)
5. Kelly Johnson sighting (1953)
6. Shag Harbour (1967)
7. Malmstrom AFB (1967)
8.
9. Skylab III (1973)
10.
Who were the experts polled?
In one of his numerous blog posts, Paul Kimball has mentioned that “among those who submitted top ten (or "ten of the best") lists were Dick Hall, Stan Friedman, Kevin Randle, the late Karl Pflock, Nick Pope, Don Ledger, Chris Styles, Jan Aldrich, Dr. Bruce Maccabee, Nick Redfern, Chris Rutkowski, Will Wise, Martin Shough, yours truly, Brad Sparks (our chief consultant), and... you guys, the readers, in the poll that was held here last year. There were also some other experts who prefer to remain sub rosa, but who are definitely among the best, most knowledgeable men and women on the subject of the UFO phenomenon” (see Footnote 8.02).
Paul Kimball’s blog has also listed the “consultants” to his documentary, which may be a fuller version of the list of those that contributed relevant lists for the documentary. The list of consultants was as follows:
- Brad Sparks
- Bruce Maccabee, Ph.D.
- Major Kevin Randle, Ph.D.
- William Wise, M.S.E.
- Dick Hall
- Nick Pope
- Robert Klinn, J.D.
- Jan Aldrich
- Joel Carpenter
- Martin Shough
- Chris Styles
- Chris Rutkowski
- Don Ledger
- Nick Redfern
- Stuart Miller
- Mac Tonnies
- Paul Kimball, LL.B.
- Vox populi
Why did I mention above that the introduction of the documentary was somewhat misleading?
Well, Paul Kimball has been quite candid when discussing his documentary that the list in the documentary does not strictly accord with the results of his survey.
The relevant changes were outlined by Paul Kimball in a podcast interview for Tim Binnall’s show (Binnall of America) - see Footnote 8.03. Kimball mentioned that:
(a) He always retained the right to “jigger” the list if he had to, “simply because it’s television”.
(b) The top 5 in the documentary were in fact the top 5 in the survey, but was a “teeny-tiny” bit of movement in relation to the cases at positions 6 to 10 in the list for various reasons. Most significantly, one case was “bumped out”. Another case - the
(c) However, everything else was “pretty much above board”.
While the manipulation of the poll results may be justified by Paul Kimball’s desire to make various points (e.g. that some UFO sightings pre-date 1947) or his (successful) attempt to make a documentary that was both informative and entertaining, such manipulation somewhat undermines the validity of the list.
In my opinion, it would be unwise to put forward the above list to skeptics as representing a consensus view among ufologists as to the top cases when it involves some manipulation by a single individual. Any skeptic that researched the documentary could attack the above points in relation to the manipulation of that list and thereby dismiss it (and any person that relies upon it).
This episode highlights the various potentially conflicting objectives of producers of television documentaries about UFOs and the dilemmas that consequently arise.
[Footnote 8.01] Paul Kimball’s blog dedicated to his documentary, “Best Evidence : Top Ten UFO Sightings”, is at:
http://bestevidence.blogspot.com/
[Footnote 8.02] Paul Kimball’s blog post at:
http://redstarfilms.blogspot.com/2007/03/final-plug-for-radio-mysteriosos.html
[Footnote 8.03] Paul Kimball’s interview with “Binnall of America” during 2007, with the points summarised in this article mainly being made in a section at approximately 23 to 28 minutes into the interview
http://binnallofamerica.com/koca.html