by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground

I bet you thought I was going to shamelessly self-promote ME! I’m not. This is about something else. This is about all of those coat-tail hanger onners out there who take our passion for the paranormal and make a mockery out of it by attempting to stir up controversy all in the name of self-promotion.

Oh sure – they couch it in terms of keeping the paranormal community informed. Or in terms of being a paranormal watch dog organization. But the truth is that what they are truly doing is using the paranormal community to feed their own huge egos. They have no sense of responsibility to the community. They don’t care whether we are informed or not. They don’t care about the truth. What they care about is that we know their name. Period.

I have no problem with sites like Darkrealm Labs or TIPS. Those sites make an honest effort to explore the paranormal from a different point of view, and I believe that they play a valuable role in the paranormal community. They help those of us with our heads in the clouds to find an anchor and evaluate critically what it is that we think that we know.

But what about the other sites? Those hysterical locales of punditry that are only loosely based on any truthful or factual evidence, and even that is spun hard to meet only one agenda – self-glorification. How do sites of this nature benefit us as a whole? I think that, for many, there is a certain train-wreck mentality. We all enjoy watching others pitch hysterical screaming hissy fits that are barely grounded in reality. It’s fun. But, at the same time, doing that only encourages those seeking attention.

I do believe that the paranormal community can benefit from having watchdog organizations. There are a number out there that do a very good job of doing just that. Where I think we don’t benefit is when those watch dog organizations become about self-promotion rather than about providing any kind of fair and balanced information.