Redefining Consensus Reality: American Media's Coverage of UFOs

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Redefining Consensus Reality: American Media's Coverage of UFOs
October 7, 2010
Tim Brosnan
Technorati

It's Paradigm Research Group (PRG) executive director Steve Bassett's job to be optimistic about "the ongoing collapse of the truth embargo on formal acknowledgment of an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race."

That's how he put it in his September 30 PRG press release, a reference, in part, to the widespread and uncharacteristically sober mainstream media coverage of Robert Hastings and Robert Sala's September 27 press conference at the National Press Building in Washington, DC.

In case you missed Technorati's coverage of it, the press conference was held to focus media attention on decades of UFO interference with U.S. military nuclear weapons installations. UFO researcher Robert Hastings and former U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Salas organized the conference, which included presentations made by seven former USAF personnel.

Roughly two dozen media representatives attended the press conference, which CNN streamed live.

Like Bassett, we've been pleased with our heretofore UFO-phobic media's straightforward coverage of the press conference, and visitors to PRG's media coverage index will correctly infer that a thaw does seem to be in progress.

Every day, somewhere in the United States, a newspaper or television station files a UFO story of some kind and, judging from PRG's index, such reports are increasing in frequency and integrity.

Signs of sobriety

Ten days prior to the press conference, several domestic media outlets picked up The Guardian's (UK) report that Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno had stated that he'd be willing to baptize an extraterrestrial if asked to do so.

Leslie Kean's new book UFO: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, published in August, earned a slot on the New York Times best seller list while Kean herself made the rounds of the talkshow circuit.

When Rich Dolan and Bryce Zabel's book, A.D. After Disclosure hits the stands this month, we expect it to garner considerable media attention, particularly in light of the popularity of NBC's new disclosure-related series, The Event.

A best-selling non-fiction book, non-news-of-the-weird reportage, and a well-attended press conference. Encouraging signs.

Signs of simplicity

Still, we've yet to see the fourth estate embrace ufology with the discipline it deserves, which is why, in the U.S. at least, their coverage retains an atmosphere of paper-training the puppy. Too many accidents and too much encouragement necessary for minimum compliance.

Where, for example, is the long-form reportage of the Vatican's well-documented interest in UFOs? Wouldn't the Consolmagno story have been a good opportunity to footnote Msgr. Corrado Balducci's 2005 X-Conference keynote address?

But we need look no further than ABC's October 5 "coverage" (and I use the term very loosely) of the September 11 UFO-related shutdown of Baotou Airport in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region for evidence of absence among America's media.

China's People's Daily reported the Baotou shutdown on September 13. Technorati reported it eight days later. Fully two weeks after that, ABC jumped on the bandwagon with what it called a "fresh report" of a UFO.

Fresh?

Even as it published its "fresh" report of month-old news, ABC failed to mention that Baotou was the third UFO-related airport shutdown in China in three months. That fact was perhaps included in their reference to the "eighth time since June that UFOs have been reported in China," but readers unfamiliar with the story could not possibly have made the proper connection.

Is this the best that ABC can do? A month late and missing a major piece of information?

And we can't help wondering how ABC feels about being scooped by Technorati. Way scooped.

Reality check

Consider this: If seven retired Air Force personnel were to hold a press conference in Washington to report that suspected Soviet agents had interfered with America's military nuclear installations during the Cold War, it would be top-of-the-fold news from coast to coast. Investigative reporters would be blowing up their best sources' cell phones.

Because the alleged culprits were UFOs, however, coverage of the press conference began and ended with the conference itself. The reasons for holding the conference remain uninvestigated and that, in a nutshell, is the problem. It was as if the concept of followup questions had yet to be invented.

As much as we'd like to praise our media for their incremental progress, we take exception to Bassett's enthusiasm about the "ongoing collapse of the truth embargo."

Hairline cracks perhaps, but ongoing collapse not so much.

And as for ABC, we have only this to say: Bad dog. No treat for you.




Read more: http://technorati.com/technology/article/redefining-consensus-reality-american-medias-coverage/#ixzz12M4NgCJb