The recent #drone sightings and news media's half-assed reporting, to me, clearly illustrate the impossibility of sorting fact from fiction in today's media landscape.
Just look at the way everybody is making up their own narrative based on some data, no data, shoddy data, conspiracy theories, and mealymouthed statements from government officials.
Every official stating what these are NOT. No official stating what they ARE. And virtually no pressure from the media to clarify.
Let the public fight about what's real and what's fake. You don't even need to obfuscate. You just wait for people to move onto the next shiny object--and this tactic, sadly, will work.
What are these things? What the hell is going on?
Literally nobody knows anything, and there's not enough reliable data or reporting to conclude a damn thing. We're just in the dark, as usual.