Universal Pays Up for Faking 'Fourth Kind' Stories

See, what happens when you make stuff up is that people tend to believe it if it looks authentic. That's a consequence Universal apparently didn't consider when making up bogus news stories to support the premise that The Fourth Kind was based on a true story. At every turn, we did our best to tell you that it was not, indeed, factual in any way, but it's a great big world. Universal will fork over a modest $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club, plus $2,500 to a scholarship fund, a reaction to complaints about fake news stories the studio planted. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the studio "created a series of fabricated online news articles to publicize the movie about a purported plague of alien abductions in Nome a decade ago. The articles posted appeared to be from real Alaska publications." There was a fake obituary and a trumped up news story about a character in the movie, Dr. William Tyler. Because the movie's fictional, the Press Club argued that the illegitmate stories undermined the credibility of the news organizations that Universal inexplicably incorporated into its marketing. Why not just make up a fake Alaskan paper? “If people can’t rely on the fact that when they look at a news article on the Web that it’s from the newspaper it appears to be, or is written by the reporter it appears to be, it erodes confidence in the world of journalism,” said attorney John McKay. Not that the studio is going to miss $22,500, but with a rather lackluster box office production, every little bit helps at this point.

Comments

[Dr. RDK]

I'm glad to read this report, for I walked out of this film after about ninety minutes, when I began to suspect that the "authentic" footage was faked. Small inconsistencies just didn't add up, not to mention the odd 'camera interferences', just when the 'real' data was needed most (it reminded me of the 'Blair Witch Project'). I've studied the abduction phenomenon for years, and this just didn't fit the pattern (subtlety, not melodrama, is in order -- esp. in the hypnosis sequences). Besides, what news organization on television would ever 'interview' , in-studio, a distraught psychiatrist by showing both a full-face headshot, along with a series of profile (!) shots, alternating back-and-forth? This was not a police line-up! Most organizations would show a 3/4 view of the guest in a relaxed atmosphere, not present a stringy haired and un-made-up patient, looking as if she came straight from an institution. She was a caricature of herself. Thanks for the news, in any event, but I continue to 'believe' in the real deal. -RDK

[john mish]

Most organizations would show a 3/4 view of the guest in a relaxed atmosphere, not present a stringy haired and un-made-up patient, looking as if she came straight from an institution. She was a caricature of herself.
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[JamesD]

Fourth kind was nice fiction movie. The crew and the team done marvelous job.
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Most organizations would show a 3/4 view of the guest in a relaxed atmosphere, not present a stringy haired and un-made-up patient, looking as if she came straight from an institution. -Lanvin it shoes