The way you use or don't use the term is irrelevant. Hawking's use was in line with popular usage, and was made even clearer by the context.
No one could possibly misinterpret it, except deliberately.
Are you accusing me of something insideous here Pete?
Your logic is faulty - it's not obvious at all. I obviously didn't read it to your standards, oh but, I did this intentionally. How you come to that conclusion is beyond me. I read things literally - you can take his sentance to be literal easily.
Perhaps "unreliable sources".
Do you assert that reports of alien visitors have come from reliable sources?
Alien visitors and UFO's in my book are different catagories. If this is a general question, then no, I do not believe they are reliable, but I do believe that they believe they've seen what they claim to see and experience.
But reliability is a highly subjective term. What I may consider reliable may not reflect the actual facts.