Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura

While Ventura attempts to draw viewers in with an often aggressive 'I'm going to get to the bottom of this' attitude, the show's research methodology and lack of hard evidence beg ridicule. Those sources interviewed by the show tend to lack credibility, such as an accredited degree in the subject matter, and few such sources are able to provide any verifiable evidence. On occasion, the show triumphs by denying the conspiratorial claims and, in so doing, brings them further ridicule. However, the show consistently provides inflamed or outright false information when representing their claims. I have found that this show can be quite useful as a tool for sharpening one's critical thinking skills. Such skills are not taught in the show, but can be exercised by attempting to prove or disprove that which is demonstrated by Mr. Ventura and his team.

Oh boy.

Watch a few of Jesse Ventura's debates, and you'll see that he has a hard time dealing with anyone challenging his facts, and he often will tell you you're wrong, pretty much because he said so.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree here. It IS entertaining and slickly made, but it's about as fictional and one-sided as it gets. You're basically listening to Jesse give his many paranoid (and poorly researched) crackpot theories an hour of unopposed banter.

Jesse has also flip flopped on if this show is a "documentary" or "entertainment" (basically depending on how much shaky ground he's on when asked). The "experts" are highly suspect, and it gives "eyewitness" accounts a baffling 100% credibility rate.

What makes the show hard to swallow is the OVERWHELMING narcissism of The Governor. He basically couches himself as the head of The Mission Impossible Team, as well as its loose cannon and muscle (Jesse, you're still a huge guy but the tough guy act doesn't work like it did before you were pushing 60). In fact, the whole "crack team" seem to be random goofs with no credentials whatsoever.

And THAT is probably the most fictional part of all.

There aren't many series specifically covering popular conspiracy theories, but Ventura seems to cover the broad strokes well enough for the runtime. The nature of the subject matter is polarizing but Ventura is an interesting enough character who doesn't bring too much of the wrong baggage to this subject matter - some of the people he interviews for the show are perhaps a bit unsuitable and detract from the serious inquiry of the stories they are trying to convey, but his team's adversarial approach to scrutinizing the accounts and motives seems to ground the presentation well enough while being playful and accessible - you're never going to be able to go over all the details in the time allotted, and all the pieces matter usually when it comes to conspiracy so armchair experts will find much to be desired, but otherwise it's decent edutainment.

This show is very much a product of its time (simpler times of 2009) and probably not the sort of thing a lot of networks would be comfortable airing in the 'post-truth' era, certainly not without a lot more careful editorial oversight - some of the people interviewed for this show have been so thoroughly cancelled that we're not going to see them again; personalities like David Icke are arguably so demented that even back in 2009 he shouldn't have been platformed on this show at least not without a strong disclaimer; because popular conspiracy theorists like Icke and Alex Jones are important to the story of how CT's are sustained and propagated, whether they be dangerously ignorant peddlers like the aforementioned, or whistleblowers or journalists whose suppression might not be fully realized today these characters are relevant to the stories so there is an argument for their inclusion in any holistic presentation even if you were making this show today, but since a lot of those guys make their money peddling disinformation and selling products off their personal brands they should come with clear disclaimers.

How do I put this.

Lets say you go to Church, the priest is trying to sell you god and all the bible stories, but he does this while wearing a red nose, Pink John Lennon glasses and a head made of a dead skunk.

Jesse Ventura is such a bad actor and such a bad 'face' for this show that it becomes more difficult to believe these conspiracies.

9-11. A relatively OK episode but of all the things Ventura could have done Ventura stupidly chooses to yell at a closed door of a hanger where some debris lies around, and has a half ass interview with an FBI agent. The subject remains interesting and the truth isn't out, not at all.

Bilderberg. Dummy Venture meets with Alex Jones. Alex Jones is the least credible person on this earth. Bilderberg is a group of globalists who discuss whatever they discuss. It was created by the Dutch Royals, people not powerful or big enough. Queen Beatrix had no power, has no influence in business or government, in 2012 whatever little power she had was stripped away from her. What use could she be for the group she herself (and Bernard) have started? None. There is no conspiracy here. As a member of the Bilderberg said: If we are a secret society that want to dominate the world, we are doing a horrible job at it.

Manchurian Candidate, another BS episode with BS people. Surely mindcontrol has been explored, why wouldn't they? But Jesse makes a big old mess of it by interviewing a bunch of lunatics.

If one wants to do a show on CT, do it seriously and leave out the bloody Hollywood element. Above all, have a credible person with an IQ higher than a goldfish present it.

They may have a few points in there but it's packaged inside hours of dross, with absolutely no common sense applied in any of the episodes I've watched so far.

His 'investigator' June is a well known TV host from England with, I suspect, no actual knowledge or experience in the field of investigation. Ventura himself just seems like a knuckle head who'll believe anything told to him so long as it's by some 'informer/insider' with zero credibility.

The whole show is melodramatic, over the top rubbish that'll feed the already fruit loop conspiracy theorists out there while leaving the more sane ones among us scratching our heads as to how this lasted for three series.