The Fraud of Reality Based Programming
By Brad Smith
This is going to be a hard little piece to write about this week because I take it kind of personal. Recently while surfing across the inter-web I was looking for pictures of how people fake ghost photos. It was interesting non-the-less but then I came across a whole series of webpage’s that exclaimed how the show Paranormal State was a fraud. Article after article explained in detail about how certain “evidence” gathered on this show was either faked or edited. I am big fan of the show so I figured I should say something about it.
As I wrote above, I spent probably a good hour reading all this information about clients visited by the Paranormal State team who were embarrassed by the outcome shown on television. The common statement was that the reason for why the clients called PRS to investigate and what ended up on the show were often times two completely different things. For example, one client allegedly said in a written statement that the editing process made her look crazy and angry throughout the show because she was possibly possessed. She went on to say that was a complete fabrication by the show producers and that idea was not even discussed while PRS was in their home.
There were all kinds of other written reports and testimonies from clients and witnesses who came in contact with the PRS crew while on location. I will save all those reports for you to find on your own if you want to see what they say. Trust me; there is a lot out there. Just go to your favorite little search engine and type something about Paranormal State being fake, and there you go. I won’t sit here and re-hash what has apparently already been beaten to death by other reporters and writers about this topic. I just wanted to get the information out there.
What really bothers me about this whole situation is that I always sort of half way wanted to believed that most of these shows we see on television were actually real. I feel like I have written about that enough already in previous articles so I will leave it alone today. The part that gets me is that I feel like shows like this on television are just flat out feeding on the gullibility of the viewer just to believe in whatever they place on their show to watch.
This whole thing got me to start thinking about other paranormal shows. How much of what they do is actual investigation to further the science and then how much of what they do is just crap to create a higher net rating. I have to believe more of the end of that last sentence than the first. On that note, I have to think that the paranormal reality show is probably coming to a close. The market is flooded with these shows and not a whole lot separates one from the other. We all know what happens when a new trend gets trendy…it goes away.
As stated before, I think everybody who watches the show, Jersey Shore, realizes that show is completely not real. They are paid actors. As it appears the same is true with the paranormal programming as well. I guess it is true that once Hollywood gets a hold on something that is good, they ruin it for profit and fortune. I’m not saying that all these reality based shows are frauds, but after reading how Paranormal State is allegedly produced, it sure wouldn’t surprise me that the rest is the same way. I have not watched a reality based paranormal show since I read all the reports that I read. Maybe one day I can get myself to sit down and watch one of these shows for the Entertainment factor, but I sure don’t like watching a mockery of something I believe in portrayed as what it has become.
