How an Unexplained Event Can Evolve into a Myth

This is a first attempt to analyze how an event can be transformed into news story and then, on into a fictionalized narrative.

This is a simplified generic profile, but I welcome any input on corrections and ommissions.

			How an Unexplained Event Can Evolve into a Myth
				EVENT: Partial Information from Aftermath, Witnesses, Official Report etc.
		Media Coverage: Seeks to fill information void with comments from: Witnesss (and their associates) Investigators or Officials Experts		Official Investigation: Information is gathered, theories and suspects are considered.		Confusing or Mistaken details enter the narrative.
Speculative comments begin being repeated, creating a feedback loop of corrupted data.		Attempt at Event Reconstruction: Speculative Narrative is created, sometimes with Artwork, Animation, Reenactment.		Officials cannot match public's appetite for details.
Public circulation of tales mixing fact and fiction.		Media dramatization of case continues, may be linked to emotional, cultural or political hot-button issues.		Officials may repeat details of Media coverage in reports, making them "official". While trying to squash rumors, may feed them.
Public memory fades or just remembers sensationalized elements.		Media may tire of case before Official investigation complete.		No Official Explanation.
Public "knows" what really happened, but is lied to by the Officals and the Media.		Media Response: Accusations of Official Incompetence or Cover-Up.		Official Explanation: If it comes, always less dramatic than the Media coverage.
Fable, Parable or Myth is born. Fictionalized story, often with large doses of injustice and paranoia.

In case this does not format properly or is difficult to view, see the original at:
How an Unexplained Event Can Evolve into a Myth

I put this together after failing to find anything that quite dealt with the concepts I was examining. The closest thing I've read on it it Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. Any reccomendations on further reading are welcome.

The Legend of the WASP II

The WASP II

Flying Magazine from September 1982 was one of many magazines carrying information  on the Williams International WASP II (Williams Aerial Systems Platform).

(scroll down a bit for WASP picture article)

 

Flying Magazine Sep 1982

Somehow, this real device got attached to the legends of a nuclear powered secret test vehicle involved in the Cash-Landrum case.

It seems to have begun after the story was featured on "Unsolved Mysteries" in 1991. One of the calls that came in the tip line told of the atomic powered WASP II.

Betty Cash's physician, Dr. Bryan McClelland later repeated the story in the press, and it became part of the legend surrounding the case.

Media coverage of UFOs prior to the Cash-Landrum encounter

Some cultural and historical background for the study of the Cash-Landrum sighting:

UFOs were big in the media in those days.

There was even an annual cash prize from the National Enquirer for the best UFO story of the year, judged by some prominent UFOlogists.
Bob Pratt on the National Enquirer UFO Blue Ribbon Panel

A lot of the media attention was fueled by the success of a 1977 movie by Steven Spielberg (more on that below).

Project UFO, an NBC television series debuted in 1978 and ran for two seasons.

It loosely adapted Blue Book cases, while taking its visual depiction of UFOs from CE3K- gigantic and brilliantly lit.

On April 24, 1980, there was a failed helicopter mission to rescue American hostages held in Iran, Operation Eagle Claw. The secret training for this mission was conducted at Area 51 in Nevada and the mission failure led to the base's public exposure. A second mission Iran rescue mission, "Honey Badger" was planned and test flights involving CH-47s flew across much of the United States. When President Reagan was elected in November, it was clear that the mission was unnecessary, but the operation remained active until Jan 1981. Reports of these test missions likely fed into reports of "mystery helicopters" at the time. The Cash-Landrum case was initially linked to this phenomenon.

In August, 1980 Secretary of Defense Harold Brown disclosed details of secret US stealth technology experimentation. There was much press and speculation leading up to this. (Incidentally, the test flights for the F-117 stealth plane were conducted at Area 51, birthplace of many UFO legends.)

 Another key media influence in the latter half of 1980 was the movie Hangar 18  (a Hollywood version of the Aztec UFO crash legend). The movie's advertising misleadingly promoted as a documentary, and the advertising traded heavily on US Government cover-up and conspiracy, drawing on distrust and paranoia following the Watergate affair. The movie poster played on government distrust:

 "The government is concealing a UFO 

and the bodies of the alien astronauts. 

 Why won't they tell us?"

(Betty Cash's cardiologist recommended that she see this movie- it is highly likely she saw the television advertisements for it.)

Close Encounters of The Third Kind was rereleased nationwide to theaters August 1980 in a Special Edition. Almost every element of the Cash-Landrum UFO encounter was featured in the movie:

Brilliantly lit, gigantic UFO

   

 Car encounters UFO on lonely road

   

Witnesses suffer skin burns from UFO

A young boy endangered by a UFO   

Helicopter menaces witnesses

 

US military has knowledge of UFO and has scheme to for cover-up

Whatever actually happened on Dec 29, 1980, the incident was quickly absorbed and reshaped to fit into the existing UFO paradigm. The witnesses claimed it was a military exercise, but the chief investigator and promoter of the case preferred an extraterrestrial solution.