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Reporting on UFOs
By Tim Swartz
FATE :: July 2006
On November 26, 2002, North American Aerospace Defense Command began receiving reports of a contrail of unknown origin in the air over the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. Fighter jets were scrambled from several bases to intercept the unknown that was heading northwest toward the U.S., but reportedly, nothing was spotted. Commercial airline pilots later reported the contrail over Florida and later over Indiana.
This fascinating report received scant attention in the U.S. press, which is unusual considering the zeal for “national security” that has been rampant since 9/11. The thought is disturbing that an unknown aircraft could fly with impunity over the United States and receive only a few paragraphs in local papers. What could possibly explain this odd lack of curiosity by the national media?
Actually, the failure of the press to respond to this story is no surprise considering that the mainstream press has developed the attitude that UFO reports are strictly for the tabloids. This position has become so pervasive that when some editors and journalists have attempted serious, well researched UFO investigations, they have found themselves isolated by their peers.
The popular misconception is that UFOs are seen only by the uneducated, the mentally ill, or hoaxers seeking personal gain. Because of this, many think that any reporter interested in handling such a story must also be so inclined.
According to the current attitude with the news media, there has never been anything mysterious about UFO sightings; they can all be easily explained away with glib, uninformed blanket statements. However, this has not always been the case. In the late 1940s the mainstream press regularly covered UFO reports. At that time UFOs were a relatively unknown phenomenon and had not been tainted by the “lunatic fringe” that would surface in the 1950s and ’60s. By then, most media outlets had become discouraged by the lack of progress in explaining UFOs and little, if any, verifiable evidence. By the time the 1970s had rolled around, UFO stories were permanently consigned to the back pages next to the horoscope column ...
Read the rest of this article in the July 2006 issue of FATE
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