Media furore and UFOs

While there are certainly some fascinating details emerging slowly about the USN UFO reports by pilots, there's also a lot of hyperbole. I'd like to suggest some caution and tempering of the message.

First, we're not suddenly in a "new era" of mainstream media acceptance of UFOs. Mainstream media have been doing stories about UFOs all along. (And this one too.) 

Studies of media and UFOs show that coverage waxes and wanes, driven by a number of factors. One factor is definitely internal media effects, and the fact that the new TV show Unidentified premieres this week is absolutely connected with the NYT story.

And this is not Disclosure, or even disclosure. Powers that be are not controlling the release of UFO info now any more than they have 50 years ago. We are learning about UFO cases at a steady rate. As media pick up on news tips, stories are generated. If anything, this is possibly another media effect (see above).

As for official government interest in UFOs, the recent focus on the USN neglects the fact that there have been many official UFO projects over the years. Grudge, Sign, Blue Book, Second Storey, and Magnet, to name a few. And even after Blue Book closed in 1969, we have info on many military cases that have been documented in the later years (including USN reports), so it's not surprising that investigations kept going until today.

While the USN pilots' reports are fascinating, there are some hard questions that they raise. Why just Navy pilots? Where are the reports from USAF pilots who also patrol the seaboards? And media constantly report (in the mainstream) about Russian incursions into US airspace, which are acted upon immediately. Why would UFOs be allowed to hover near military exercises for weeks without any concern or media attention?

And despite visual and radar observations of UFOs by pilots and other personnel in the case of the Nimitz case, assumptions about UFO capabilities based on observations just don't cut it.

Call me a Doubting Thomas. A fascinated one, but a cautious one nevertheless.