After lurking these boards for awhile I've been left with a big question.

Did they actually research or do any back ground work and make sure stories were true to them before broadcasting them? Or get any facts at all to back these stories up? I've read about a few stories on these boards that turned out to be hoaxes.

When watching a show like Unsolved Mysteries. Most people take what is being shown to them as fact because that's how they want you to take it.

I'm not saying this is the case for all the stories obviously. But why did the producers of this show not do the research first to make sure what they were showing the audience had some basis to it before airing it?

Don't get me wrong I love this show. I just find it strange that every thing shown was told as if it actually happened. But no one did the back ground work to make sure that was really the case and really had nothing to prove some of the stories that were shown.

It seems like they did the work for most cases like the missing person cases or the one's on murder. So why not on all of them? When it comes to the UFO stories or Psychic stories they seem to rely to heavily on the person's word and what the person said without having anything to back it up or prove it. It seems like all the work to dis prove these stories was done after the fact rather then before like it should have been. Before they showed it to begin with.

Am I wrong for thinking this? I would like others opinions or views on this.

Would the show have been less interesting this way? Is that possibley why it was done this way?

I have also found a few stories that I found interesting enough to try to do research online. Only to be left wondering because I couldn't find anything more then the fact it was featured on unsolved mysteries or discussed because of the show on a message board somewhere. Sometimes I am left wondering if this person even exists based on the fact I can't find anything when looking up the name.

Anyone else come across stories like this?

What stories have been proven hoaxes? What stories do you think are possible hoaxes but has yet to be proven?

Discuss :)

A lot of the stories have some basis to them. Remember at the beginning of the show it said, "This is not a news broadcast." They would sometimes intentionally leave information out or change information in order to protect evidence/leads that the police/families did not want out. And sometimes it was just sloppy.

there's really no way to prove things like UFO's, miracles, strange legends, ghosts, psychics. IMO, there's legitimate ones out there and there are liars who try to get their 15 minutes of fame.

there's a whole thread about hoaxes on UM, if you do a search, you should find it.

We've talked about this issue quite a bit on the discussion board in various threads. I posted this (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showpost.php?p=3285266&postcount=33)a while back with respect to the Glen & Bessie Hyde legend. There are quite a few cases where you sit there and think, "Hey, they're leaving out a huge part of the story!" I think UM glossed over a lot of stuff that could be easily debunked for entertainment value.

Were there any specific cases you had in mind?

Well, I know there were certain instances where there were minor details that were completely wrong. Like in a murder case from south Florida. They said it happened in Belle Glade, 80 miles south of Miami. In fact, Belle Glade is 80 miles north of Miami in Palm Beach County. If the murder were 80 miles south of Miami you would be darn near to Cuba. I mean, a majority of the cases on the show were/are real but yes the research done into the cases was not always the best. Still I love the show!

Can someone please give some examples of these hoaxes on UM?? What did someone do? Say a murder, rape, or robbery happened when it never did??

I think I get what the OP is saying. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think every story presented on UM has some basis in fact. Obviously, with the paranormal stuff you really only have the person's word, so I'm not sure what kind of proof they could present otherwise. Do I think UM made up stories just for the Hell of it? I doubt it. There have been a lot early cases that I have tried researching online by using victim/perp's names and I have found nothing. I don't assume this is because the story doesn't exist. Just that the case is so old/obscure that details never made it to the WWW. Hell, if you Googled Glen Consagra's name about six years ago, I doubt you would find much. Not even discussion about the case here on SO because his story wasn't widely known to our online community.