I picked up a book by an early ufologist. He recounts how he watched a TV "documentary" that used uncredited footage as
"real" that he and another guy did just to see if they could make a fake sighting. Something about driving along back
roads, with the saucer attached to the end of a fishing pole.
Oh, there's plenty of that, alright.
What better way to discredit an idea or phenomenon.
There's jokesters just having fun. Then there's disinformation specialists who take it to a real art form. Twixt the two types, there's plenty of discrediting going on.
Makes filtering the signal out from the noice more than a small chore. And the jury is still out on lots of things.
But not everything.