UFO Hunters

The History Channel has a new series called UFO HUNTERS. For about a month now, a team of investigators led by Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine, has taken one case a week and tried to prove an extraterrestrial connection using scientific methods. Predictably, they have failed. After all, if they had proven extraterrestrials had visited Earth, that nugget would not have remained secret until that episode aired. Birnes, however, does his level best at the end of every program to insist the alien angle in that case is still viable. He is only modestly convincing.

The History Channel has also run a series called UFO FILES for the past three years or so. It's an interesting enough series, but the connection to history seems tenuous. Again, the problem is the lack of evidence The study of history is the study of evidence. From that perspective, series about UFOs might be better placed on another network.

Of course, The History Channel is a business competing for ratings it can translate into fat ad rates. UFOs, it seems, sell.