Post by uforn on Aug 17, 2011 15:59:51 GMT 1
Journalists who shun UFO reports fail readers
BY BILL WICKERSHAM
For more than 60 years, innumerable well-documented reports have been made of sightings, landings and crashes of unidentified flying craft, commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). They undoubtedly are under intelligent control and travel at speeds and with aeronautical capabilities far exceeding those of today’s known military and commercial aircraft. Testimony of reliable witnesses, including astronauts, generals, admirals, law enforcement officials, airline pilots, scientists and many other highly credentialed officials attests to the physical reality and uniqueness of these craft. Additionally, there is evidence some craft have been retrieved by military personnel of the United States and other countries. Furthermore, research has verified that several witnesses have viewed and handled the bodies of “visitors” that can only be described as extraterrestrial in nature.
In 1999, an outstanding document titled “UFOs and Defence: What Must We Be Prepared For?” was published by an independent group of former “auditors” of the French Institute for National Defence and experts from several other scientific fields. Known as the COMETA report, the study included the examination of some 500 international UFO sightings, including radar/visual cases and previously undisclosed reports of commercial and military pilots. It also drew on data from official sources, government authorities and air forces of other countries. The report further explored the political and religious implications of UFOs, as well as the problem of disinformation, ridicule and manipulation efforts by government agencies and other vested interests.
In its conclusion, the report addressed the issue of extraterrestrial visitation: “A single hypothesis sufficiently takes into account the facts and, for the most part, only calls for present day science. It is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitors. Advanced in 1947 by certain U.S. military personnel, today it is popular worldwide. It is discredited by a certain elite, but is plausible. Scientists (astronomers, physicists, engineers, futurologists etc.) have elaborated on it enough for it to be received as a hypothesis — by their peers.”
When journalist Leslie Kean wrote the first account of the COMETA report in the Boston Globe on May 21, 2000, she thought the article “would have to generate some kind of news buzz, and that other journalists would eagerly jump in to pick up where I had left off. ... Amazingly nothing happened. ... It was the beginning of a rude awakening, a rite of passage into the perplexing reality that UFOs cannot be acknowledged at all, even as simply the unidentified flying objects that they are. It was as if everyone was pretending that they didn’t exist.”
Given the life-changing potential and consequences of the UFO/ET problem, and because it has primarily been subject to sensational tabloid journalism, it is essential that local, national and international journalists seriously perform the duties and responsibilities required by the mission and ethics of their indispensable profession. For the past 60-plus years, the mainstream media have either ignored or ridiculed what might be the biggest story of human history.
During this period, every top-level news organization in the United States has been approached countless times by citizens and researchers with events, information and evidence relating to the UFO phenomenon. With few exceptions, the major news organizations have defaulted on this issue, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN news television. On many occasions, UFO events have been reported by local media and then transmitted to narrow-minded national editors who have failed to do follow-up stories.
Examples of the negligence are plentiful. One glaring case was the April 1997 UFO sighting witnessed by thousands of people in the Phoenix area. This massive UFO was one of the most spectacular sightings in U.S. history, but mainstream journalists wanted nothing to do with it and might have ignored it completely if not for the very candid, detailed interview of Phoenix Councilwoman Frances Barwood by USA Today’s Richard Price, who wrote an excellent piece about the event.
Historically, most major media organizations have been of the opinion UFOs are not real and often treated anyone who believes they are to be intellectually stunted and deserving of dismissal and ridicule. Most journalists, like many academics, have seriously failed in their professional obligation to treat the issue fairly and objectively. Such behavior is known by some UFO investigators as “The Journalism UFO Syndrome.”
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said of the search for truth: “All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.” If sound journalism practices are applied to the UFO/ET issue, we might be able to partially curtail stages one and two.
Bill Wickersham is an adjunct professor of peace studies at the University of Missouri–Columbia.
Source:
www.columbiatribune.com/news/2011/aug/16/journalists-who-shun-ufo-reports-fail-readers/