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I Spoke with the New York Times Reporter Who Broke the Pentagon UFO Program Story. It Wasn't What I Expected.

6/23/2018

46 Comments

 
​As many regular readers know, I recently discovered that some of the evidence the Hal Puthoff of To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science used to support the claim that metal with supposedly unearthly composition and properties from flying saucers is in their possession has been previously studied and determined to be earthly, most likely industrial waste. After hearing ufologist Richard Dolan speculate idly about the New York Times’ coverage of the such topics, I thought that the New York Times, which broke the original story credulously mentioning these metals, should know about this in the name of accuracy and integrity. Over the past two days, I have been in conversation with Ralph Blumenthal, who co-wrote the December 16, 2017 story revealing the existence of the Pentagon’s UFO program and the claim of Luis Elizondo, the program’s onetime head who joined Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, that billionaire aerospace contractor and ufology buff Robert Bigelow was examining unknown metals, described as being metal recovered from the ships of space aliens. It has been strange. 
Just to clarify, here is how Blumenthal and his coauthors described the metamaterials: “Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena.” Note that Bigelow, not the Pentagon, was identified as the possessor of the metal. Note, too, that the source of the claim is Elizondo and other contractors, who are, of course, per published reports, the employees of Bigelow Aerospace and the people Bigelow subcontracted. One of the Bigelow subcontractors was Hal Puthoff, who admitted to being a Bigelow subcontractor on the Pentagon UFO project. And, surprise: Puthoff was another named source in the article. The Times described him as a contractor but did not identify his connection to Bigelow.
 
I hesitated about whether to write this blog post at all. I have no interest in making enemies or angering people unnecessarily, but on the other hand, being polite has not really achieved any of my intended goals. I would normally not share what was discussed by email, and I honestly had no intention of talking about it, but my conversation with Blumenthal was not off the record, and the public good seems to require that I share the fact that Blumenthal was unimpressed with the previously published scientific report that some of the supposed metamaterials are terrestrial in origin and likely industrial waste. (He said he was already familiar with the material, which was surprising to me, given his published and broadcasted words; journalists are supposed to report opposing perspectives.) He also declined to address the issue of unpublicized ties between To the Stars, the Pentagon program, and Robert Bigelow, or To the Stars and its financial dealings. He said he was familiar with me and my work and suggested that my analysis was a “conspiracy” theory and that it was “potentially libelous.” There really is little more to say here, and you can draw your own conclusions. I will instead discuss the public record surrounding Blumenthal and his writing partner Leslie Kean’s Times report.
 
This is such a weird situation and it leaves me quite uncomfortable. I don’t generally like to be in the position of advocate, though here I am acting as an advocate for the truth, whatever that happens to be. Alien metamaterials are certainly not my usual area of interest, and if it weren’t for ancient astronaut theorist Jacques Vallée’s involvement, I doubt I would have paid the subject any mind. Nevertheless, I ended up arguing with an award-winning New York Times journalist about whether there is a need for verifiable evidence that space aliens’ jalopies dropped spare parts while joyriding before asserting that such parts exist. This is not anything I ever imagined happening, much less for me to be cast as a conspiracy theorist.
 
I’ll be honest: This breaks my heart. I went to journalism school, and I once dreamed of reporting for a major news organization like the New York Times. I could not conceive of reporting such a major assertion as the existence of material manufactured on another world without evidence, and yet here we are: My uncompromising belief in the need for evidence has run headlong into a gray area of journalism. Blumenthal technically only reported that Elizondo and the Bigelow people had said that Bigelow’s subcontracted group had examined these metals; on MSNBC he added that unnamed “scientists” didn’t know what to make of them. He stands by the accuracy of those statements, and legalistically, Blumenthal is correct. Elizondo said those things. But that’s a weaselly way around evidence, and I am concerned that Blumenthal and Kean are too close to the story.
 
I wasn’t planning, actually, to devote today’s blog post to this subject, but the more I thought about it, the angrier I became, especially at Kean’s fairly clear bias in covering her subject. Her conflicts of interest as UFO believer and a political advocate for UFO research (she is the cofounder of a UFO disclosure advocacy organization called the Coalition for Freedom of Information and sued NASA for UFO information) ought to have disqualified her from reporting this story for the Times. She is not a neutral or objective journalist.
 
Kean is the author of puff pieces about how To the Stars engages in “world-changing” activity and did a podcast interview last month explaining that she and Blumenthal, who retired from the Times in 2009, worked closely with Elizondo for months (“hours, and hours, and hours,” Kean said) and pitched the story to the Times from outside the paper. The Times assigned a staff reporter to work with them to ensure the story adhered to Times standards. I assume these standards are why the published story contains many more qualifiers than Blumenthal and Kean use in their interviews.
​I listened to her interview on The Gimerica Show, and it is eminently clear that Kean, who wrote a largely uncritical book about the military and UFOs a few years ago, is deeply invested in the UFO movement and what advocates might describe as “disclosure”—though Kean denies understanding what ufologists mean by the term. (This is just silly—she clearly knows what it means.) She had difficulty answering even simple questions about what exactly Luis Elizondo revealed that was so important, given that she claimed that none of the information was classified. Why, fellow guest Alex Tsakiris of Skeptiko asked, if this is so important to the government, was Elizondo not charged like so many others who leaked information? Well, Kean said, it wasn’t classified, but they were “furious” that the unclassified program, which openly advertised for contractors, had somehow become public. It doesn’t add up, to be frank, and it bothers me that Elizondo began talking to Kean and Blumenthal at the same time he defected from the Pentagon to Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars, an aspect of the story that went unquestioned in the Times.
 
Kean stated that Elizondo only provided “the parts” of the Pentagon program that “aren’t” classified. Since Elizondo is Times’ stated source for the claim for alien metamaterials, this therefore means that the alien metamaterials are not classified. And yet no reports or information on them are available. That’s because, as we know from statements made by employees of To the Stars, that they are not actually part of the Pentagon program, but Bigelow’s, and now To the Stars’. The Times report even stated that the metamaterials were in Bigelow’s possession.
 
Kean said that she “didn’t understand” questions about Elizondo’s motives, including his media tour at the behest of his new employer, To the Stars. “Yes, he was coached,” she said about his later media appearances, but she denied that any of this was relevant to his credibility vis-à-vis space aliens. In fact, it is quite clear that Kean is enraptured of her subject, whom she refers to familiarly as “Lou,” praising Elizondo and calling his October 2017 resignation letter—sent when he had secured a job with DeLonge, though so far as I know never made public—“historic” because it criticized the Pentagon. “That letter, to me, is history,” Kean said, “because it was written to the Secretary of Defense […] speaking truth.” (According to John Greenwald, Jr. of the Black Vault, the Pentagon responded to a FOIA request for this letter by stating no such record exists.)
 
Perhaps this makes me a conspiracy theorist, but I’d think that a person’s financial incentives—that he is being paid to promote alien metamaterials and other extremist claims to help raise funds for the company that employs him—are relevant to judging whether to take his word for it. Blumenthal and Kean dutifully mentioned To the Stars exactly once in their report, but cast the venture as benevolently raising money for UFO research. This is, according to To the Stars itself, untrue.
  
You will, of course, recall that last year Tom DeLonge launched To the Stars with a splashy news conference and a public stock offering. I helped break the news at the time that DeLonge’s company was structured with its primary financial obligation to pay him massive royalties and loan repayments, totaling more than $100,000 in royalties and even more in loan repayments each year. According to SEC filings, much of the money raised by the stock offering would essentially go to paying back DeLonge and paying its executives’ salaries until and unless the venture miniscule generated significant profits. It is an open question how the company is paying for the metamaterials research they allege that they are performing. According to DeLonge himself, the company intends to use what money it has to create movies, books and a TV series as its primary product, with supposed flight technology that seemingly defies the laws of physics as a secondary focus. UFO research is the come-on that brings in the cash, but the company has announced no original UFO research plans, only efforts to publicize material from the Pentagon program and Bigelow Aerospace. To wit, DeLonge himself stated that he intends to use money from investors to “make these films, build the machine, and continue to fly around the world and brief Gov Representatives.” (Note that DeLonge claims to be the party doing the briefing, not receiving information.)
 
Kean suggests that she is privy to “behind the scenes” developments that are “positive” but that she can’t share for fear of ruining them. This is not what journalists do. When I was in school, my professors—who worked for the major broadcasters and newspapers—emphasized that you don’t accept information that can’t be reported in some way. At best, it means that you lie to your readers, and at worst it puts you in a compromising position with your sources.
 
Kean described herself as deeply involved in ufology and immersed in its subculture and its literature. “We all know a lot about UFOs,” Kean said of herself and the Grimerica team, “so to us it just seems obvious.” She mentioned that the general public is not familiar with ufology books or popular ufologists.
 
It’s troubling to hear Kean talk about what she thinks To the Stars and the Pentagon are working sub rosa to do, and I can’t help but think that she is a true believer, not a neutral reporter. Kean also discussed her belief in telepathy (tied to her most recent book, about the afterlife), so we aren’t talking about a terribly skeptical person. Indeed, when she tried to explain her belief that in one case a medium contacted a spirit that passed along obscure business information from Denmark, she weirdly alleged that “skeptics” would argue that the psychic actually remote viewed the business records and translated them from Danish. I don’t think she understands skepticism at all, or else has a grossly unscientific view of remote viewing. Oh, wait… she has worked closely with Hal Puthoff, the king of remote viewing. 

Not long after her interview, Newsweek broke the story that Bigelow Aerospace used the UFO program to study poltergeists and psychic phenomena because its members believed that UFOs distort human perceptions and are responsible for the paranormal. I am sorry, but I do not trust the Bigelow people to tell me the truth without a ton more evidence than the word of people who are on the fringes of the fringe.
 
“So far, we don’t have the material we need to do another story and to satisfy the editors at the New York Times,” Kean said about her UFO research. 
 
I think that the Times might do well to reconsider future story pitches from Kean, at least those on subjects where she has all but declared herself an advocate rather than an observer. 
46 Comments
Joe Scales
6/23/2018 10:15:51 am

"... and the public good seems to require that I share the fact..."

There's the problem right there. Once we convince ourselves we are acting for "good", we can then act against our conscience.

Reply
Americanegro
6/23/2018 12:27:13 pm

1. Blumenthal was unimpressed with the previously published scientific report that some of the supposed metamaterials are terrestrial in origin and likely industrial waste.
2. He also declined to address the issue of unpublicized ties between To the Stars, the Pentagon program, and Robert Bigelow, or To the Stars and its financial dealings.
3. He said he was familiar with me and my work and suggested that my analysis was a “conspiracy” theory and that it was “potentially libelous.”

That's the sum total of discussion of the email exchanges. I don't see a problem. Let's look again:

1. He was unimpressed.
2. He declined.
3. He was familiar.

Reply
Joe Scales
6/23/2018 03:42:29 pm

Oh, I was thinking big picture. Rather than getting bogged down with the particulars, I instead marveled at the pretension; and of course joined in.

Hal
6/23/2018 12:17:18 pm

Your assertion that you don’t advocate for the truth is accurate. Kudos.

Reply
Beverly Goldberg
6/23/2018 01:02:53 pm

Hal, do you have to make? When was the last time you made?

Reply
Hal
6/23/2018 08:17:42 pm

Yes.
Just now.

Hal
6/23/2018 08:22:03 pm

Bev: keep in mind that this is a hate blog.

Reply
beverly goldberg
6/24/2018 01:23:26 pm

Sounds like someone needs some NUM-NUMS!!!

Machala
6/23/2018 01:16:41 pm

Jason,
How's it feel to know that you're part of a conspiracy to keep the poor, gullible , unsuspecting public from knowing the TRUTH about all these UFOs and Aliens dropping heavy metal as they cruise the United States looking for cows and humans to experiment on ?

Your first mistake was to call into question an ex-scribe for the Times ( who then promptly contacted his co-author/source for the piece ) and expected that you'd get some sort of agreement. Ha ! Egos and Points of view must be protected, at all costs.

You should have contacted the Editors at the Times directly to plead your cause. You MIGHT have received a more open reception to your disagreements with Blumenthal & Kean's published article. You MIGHT have even gotten an offer to write a rebuttal piece.

You may still want to contact the Times directly. Who knows ?

Reply
J dunham
6/23/2018 01:50:48 pm

Don't know if that would help as they say you can't believe a word in the N.Y. Times not even and or the.....

Reply
Scott Hamilton
6/23/2018 01:21:19 pm

One way to not play To the Stars game would be to stop calling the piece of slag a metamaterial. While the term is a little fuzzy, something really can't be considered a metamaterial unless it has some manufactured attribute that makes it useful in some way. I don't think I've seen anybody claim the piece of slag has any obvious use, so at best it could a fragment of unknown manufacture. And as Jason points out, it's probably not even *that* unknown.

Reply
Jonathan Ferguson
6/23/2018 01:29:26 pm

I've read this through twice and still don't understand what's going on. Would anyone care to summarise for the hard of thinking?

Reply
Machala
6/23/2018 01:40:37 pm

Jonathan,
Go back and read Jason's 16/6/18 and 21/6/18 blogs on the Times article and on the "alien metals" . That should bring you up to speed.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
6/23/2018 01:41:00 pm

Short form: I though I'd share with the NYT reporters some information relevant to evaluating their claim that "alien" metal is being studied. I assumed Blumenthal would say some polite words and do nothing. Instead he suggested that questioning Puthoff and To the Stars was libel and a conspiracy theory. I found this shocking, so I looked into it more and found that the Times reporters are more involved in the UFO movement than they let on. It's generally frowned upon to have an advocate covering a story because of the potential for bias.

Reply
Joe Scales
6/23/2018 03:24:48 pm

"It's generally frowned upon to have an advocate covering a story because of the potential for bias."

Well then, there goes every newspaper ever published.

americanegro
6/23/2018 03:40:05 pm

Sir Humphrey: The only way to understand the Press is to remember that they pander to their readers' prejudices.

Jim Hacker: Don't tell me about the Press. I know *exactly* who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they *ought* to run the country. The Times is read by the people who actually *do* run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who *own* the country. The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by *another* country. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard Woolley: Sun readers don't care *who* runs the country - as long as she's got big tits.

Machala
6/23/2018 04:42:00 pm

Jason,
Ralph Blumenthal stopped being a reporter/writer for the New York Times almost 10 years ago and Leslie Kean has NEVER worked at the Times. They contributed a story which the New York Times published, after vetting to make sure there was nothing in it, that could come back and bite the newspaper in the ass !
In all probability, Mr. Blumenthal received some sort of remuneration for TTS and/or is in some manner employed by them. After reading the Times piece, that's the take I came away with, knowing as I do, the players involved. Kean is definitely a shill for TTS !

Clete
6/23/2018 02:05:39 pm

Jason, I am old enough to remember when the news was reported and written about by actual news reporters and writers who covered stories and attempted to report without bias. They would report the facts and before they were put out for broadcast or appeared in print the facts were verified, sometimes more than once. Now, what news is reported in often not news but opinion. I know here in friendly Salt Lake City, the local news is often terrible. The local news outlets have hired reporters more for their looks and television presence than for any ability to report, without bias, the stories they cover. Most of what they cover, when not interrupted twenty seven times an hour by commercials, are puff pieces. It seems to me that the only truly informative televised news outlet is actually PBS, who attempts to be as accurate as possible and to do so with as little bias as possible.

Reply
americanegro
6/23/2018 03:20:43 pm

I admit to not having read the original NYT article until now, but it sounds more like a feature article written by non-NYT employees than a news story, although Helene Cooper who seems to be a NYT Pentagon correspondent is first in the byline. Perhaps the standards are different in that case? Sounds like a potential job for the ombudsman if the NYT has one.

Reply
Machala
6/23/2018 05:09:19 pm

AN,
Sadly, the New York Times no longer employs an Ombudsman or as the Times called the position, The Public Editor. The last, Liz Spayd was made redundant in 2017. Below is the link to her last Public Editor column....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/public-editor/liz-spayd-final-public-editor-column.html?.

P.S. I believe that Helen Cooper contributed the factual information regarding all things Pentagonal & Projectile.

K.K. Tipton
6/23/2018 02:21:28 pm

"He said he was already familiar with the material, which was surprising to me, given his published and broadcasted words"

It's easy for him to just pretend "he's familiar with the material" in a conversation. Is there any actual *proof* he even knew about these earlier studies before you told him. I'm betting no.

The entire exchange was about shutting you down basically.
Sly passive aggressive threat with the "potentially libelous" part.

It's fakes and phonies all the way up and down in this game.
The TTS pimps are trying to add a veneer of "establishment" (gov. + NYT) credibility in this latest ca$h adventure of theirs.

Nobody smart is falling for it.


Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
6/23/2018 11:17:27 pm

Thank you for putting Judas Priest songs in my head. (Or is your name just a bizarre coincidence?)

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
K.K. Tipton
6/24/2018 10:48:23 am

Hahahaha. Finally, somebody gets it.

The Electric Eye is watching TTS, hopefully Some Heads Are Gonna Roll real soon now.

Crash55
6/23/2018 07:02:27 pm

So what is the next step in getting the full story out there? If the reporter at the NYT doesn’t care what about his editor? What about their competition? Surely some other news organization would want to make the NYT look bad? 60 Minutes did a story on Bigelow, would ABC or NBC be interested in showing how they were duped?

As for the material itself, I will believe it is what they say it is when I see an independent lab test it. Many government labs will do testing for free or at cost. The DoD lab I work at does this sort if stuff at cost under a Test Sevices Agreement.

I seriously doubt any real briefings are being given. My guess he is treated the same way I treat any vendor looking to sell me some new material. They come in give their spiel and unless it is something I need I forget about them before they leave the post. For what they are claiming I would want to see test results and conduct my own tests to confirm.

Reply
Only Me
6/23/2018 08:33:22 pm

While I'm not surprised by the exchange, at least you can say you tried. It is interesting the "potentially libelous" part was introduced. It's not libel if what you're reporting is in the public record. Blumenthal knows this, of course.

This is just a UFO Ponzi scheme.

Reply
Robert Sheaffer link
6/23/2018 09:31:13 pm

Ralph Blumenthal has long been a UFO believer. He wrote this largely uncritical piece in 2013 about the late John Mack and other well-known 'UFO abductionists.' And of course Leslie Kean is certainly no disinterested observer. The New York Times piece on AATIP and TTSA may masquerade as objective journalism, but it is clearly a puff piece intended to promote Tom DeLonge's venture.

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/05/americans-alien-abduction-science

Reply
Tom mellett
6/23/2018 11:04:08 pm

Jason,

I posted links to your article on 3 Facebook groups: one, the official TTSA group and two others that are more UFO critical. Here is how I introduced it

=======

JASON COLAVITO EXPOSES NY TIMES REPORTER
RALPH BLUMENTHAL AS PROPAGANDIST AND SHILL FOR TTSA

There’s never been any doubt about Leslie Kean’s advocacy, shilling and propagandizing for TTSA and UFO Disclosure. She is very upfront about it (as you can see in the interview she had 2 months ago with Alex Tsakiris which is linked below in Jason Colavito’s new blog post that I am introducing.

But what is quite new and newsworthy is that the venerable and retired “reporter emeritus” of The NY Times, Ralph Blumenthal, turns out to be just as much a partisan advocate, propagandist and shill for TTSA as Leslie is!

Wow! Can you say “conflict of interest?” But it’s worse than that. How much have we read about the ground-breaking NY Times article as the definitive major media news story of UFO disclosure? As if it were an objective news story that deserved its place on Page 1 of The NY Times? At best, it belonged on the OpEd page as did the opinion piece by TTSA Team member Christopher Mellon which appeared in the Washington Post in March 2018.

But actually, I think it belonged in the advertising section, perhaps as a colorful insert into The NY Times Magazine because it is an infomercial for TTSA in the guise of a news story.

Let me give you the link now and excerpt some quotes.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
6/23/2018 11:22:36 pm

I hate the terms "traditional media" or "mainstream media." So to refer to that concept in this post, I'll just use a ______.

The ______ does a necessary job, especially these days. It's beyond depressing that they're under attack and I'm glad to defend them.

But it's equally depressing that they are horrid at doing that necessary job. And that ultimately what I'm constrained to defend isn't the job they're actually doing but, rather, the job they're supposed to do, and too often refrain from doing.

Mr. Colavito's account is but the latest example.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
T. Franke link
6/24/2018 06:30:58 am

This is a courageous article, thank you Jason!

Reply
Lech Lesiak
6/24/2018 08:45:56 am

Reporters shouldn't accept information that they can't publish?
Really?
Seems to me that they get info for background purposes only with some regularity and that it's useful for looking at the whole picture.

Reply
An Anonymous Nerd
6/24/2018 11:10:05 am

Here's the whole quote:

[[When I was in school, my professors—who worked for the major broadcasters and newspapers—emphasized that you don’t accept information that can’t be reported in some way. At best, it means that you lie to your readers, and at worst it puts you in a compromising position with your sources.]]

I took this to mean that Mr. Colavito was taught to not take as a given information that can't be reported, at all. So if someone tells you some super-secret information that you supposedly can't publish, you best keep digging until you find a version of it that you can publish. Someone willing to speak on the record; a source that won't be killed or ruined by revealing the information; etc.

Think about what it does to a story if you know a big piece that you can't use. Think about how the angle can change. And think about the potential for being told something that actually isn't accurate.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Jason Colavito link
6/24/2018 12:21:42 pm

That's exactly right. Background information can be reported, but the source asks not to be identified. What you don't accept is information that you're told can never be shared because it means that you have to lie to your readers, or intentionally falsify a story. It's a world of trouble.

An Anonymous Nerd
6/24/2018 11:13:39 am

The more I think about it, the more I think that if this information is potentially libelous, then either Alex Jones should be in a world of trouble, or our libel laws exclusively are designed to favor folks with super high ratings and good funding.

But that would never happen in the USA, would it?

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
Kal
6/24/2018 05:46:01 pm

It is weird that a seasoned Times reporter would 'threaten libel
on a puff article about aliens from a year back. It is not libel if it can be proven, or if it is an established editorial. The article rebuttal by Jason Colavito, a private citizen, is not libel, but an opinion piece. The reporter, a one public figure, cannot sue him for libel. No court would take that. It is a lame scare tactic on their part, and for nothing.

The metals are clearly something this person fabricated, or those construction people fabricated, or knew about as alloys, not alien metal. This is because it cannot be alien, unless it came from a meteor.

Some times a tin salesman is just that, a tin salesman.

Reply
RATIONALIST CONCLUSION
6/24/2018 07:03:59 pm

In different periods of history the human mind works in different ways. Our ancestors believed in angels. Today we hear little about angels, instead we are pre-occupied with extra-terrestrials. Now why has there been that change? Answer - angels fitted into the old world-view and met people's needs. People wanted to know that God was not indifferent or remote - but through his servants, his ministers, guarded and guided them. Today we have a scientific world-view and rather different problems. We need to feel that we are not alone in the universe. So our stories about extra-terrestrials are expressions about our religious needs. We've come to see all such ideas as expressions of the religious imagination shaped by the pre-occupations of the time.

Reply
Doc Rock
6/25/2018 03:54:34 pm

You would be amazed at how many young people in my classes strongly believe in angels and the whole religious shebang that comes with it. I do agree that there is a lot of stuff going on among people who need something to fill the gap left by religiosity declining in the face of science. But there are enough believers still around that we are faced with a real mixed bag of belief systems ranging from fundamentalist Christianity to healing crystals or Aliens, sometimes with some pretty wild combinations of at least two of the three..

Reply
Julian link
6/24/2018 10:24:20 pm

Okay, there's a lot to unpack here. I'm genuinely all for skeptical inquiry into this subject and particularly all of the vagueness around TTSA. But I can't help but feel that this author is driving his own personal ideology here, and seems to be very closed off to anything that deviates from that.

He claims that Leslie is 'not skeptical' because she has written a book investigating other paranormal phenomenon. Surely a genuinely skeptical inquiry would be to evaluate her claims and the fairly substantial evidence she brings forward in 'Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence For An Afterlife'. Surely throwing out the baby with the bathwater because it seems 'unscientific' at first glance is far from genuine skeptical inquiry.

He uses the same line of logic to attack Bigelow Aerospace here. The author claims that because Bigelow (and NIDS) is involved in a much larger research project around the general 'strangeness' of UFO research. Bigelow's group seems to be casting a wide net in its data gathering here, collating all sorts of accounts and evidence that aren't 'strictly' UFO related (eg. Skinwalker Ranch, etc).

We know that the pentagon program shut down a few years ago. The author seems to claim that because a lot of this data and the 'metamaterials' are in the hands of the Bigelow team now, that this contradicts the pentagon connection. This is pretty absurd, anyone who's spent time following this story will know that there's good evidence that the AATIP program was transferred to the private sector after its funding dried out and is now in the hands of Bigelow Aerospace.

I think where the author claims that Ralph Blumenthal accuses him of being 'libelous' he's probably referring to the irresponsible and laissez faire way he completely writes off the NYT journalists. He accuses Leslie of being biased and essentially compromised by her advocacy around UFOs. Surely what's more important is her vast experience and research into a subject other journalists won't touch. She is always measured, refrained, protects her sources and doesn't usually make wild claims.

All in all, I don't think any of us should 100% trust the NYT and definitely not the Pentagon. But we shouldn't fall into the hole thinking it's all a psyop or conspiracy too quick. The information that we have now - scarce as it is and lacking the bigger picture - has been a huge leap forward for our field. We should analyse it and discuss the inconsistencies for sure. More importantly though, we should work with what we've got, bring this subject to a wider audience and MOVE FORWARD!

Reply
Americanegro
6/25/2018 12:30:57 am

What "information" are you talking about? You sound like an idiot. Are you an idiot, Focker?

Reply
V
6/25/2018 03:39:23 pm

Julian, volume and credibility are not the same thing. If something "seems unscientific," its credibility is necessarily low. If someone is writing this kind of thing and trying to sound scientific while using unscientific methods, then they are, quite simply, not skeptical on the subject. And it's not so much that there is something "wrong" with not being a skeptic, as that knowing that she is not a skeptic on the subject DOES impact how reliable an article published in the New York Times as written in part by her is. Basically, it's something the NYT article should have included, much like including whether a political statement was made by the candidate themself or whether it was reported to have been said by someone who claims to have been in a meeting with them.

As for the pentagon claims, it's hard to claim they are military top secret items when 1) the contract has ended, and 2) the private company retains ownership. Generally speaking if the military wants something kept secret, when they cancel the project, they take the secret items WITH them. It's literally in every military contract that they get to do that. Ergo, these items are NOT military materials, definitively and by law, and it's not the Pentagon keeping them secret, it's the private company. Therefore, the fact that this stuff only shows up when one private company makes a deal with another is pertinent, and should have been information included in the NYT article.

And frankly, there is literally nothing libelous in this post. It is a criticism of the article and its methodology and as such is protected speech, and a GOOD journalist would know this, so either Blumenthal isn't a good journalist, or he's bluffing to try and silence opposition because he KNOWS that his work was subpar. As for Kean's "vast experience and research into a subject other journalists won't touch," first of all it's untrue that she's the only one who will touch it, and second of all, it's that very experience that MAKES her biased. Several of her claims ARE rather wild, not limited to a JOURNALIST not knowing what "disclosure" is, belief in telepathy, and belief in remote viewing. That does not in the least sound "measured and refrained" to me, and also causes me, thanks to high school and college library courses, to wonder if the sources she is "protecting" 1. actually exist and 2. actually said what she claims.

Basically, what it boils down to is that Jason wrote about the fact that the article that was published in the NYT left out several very pertinent facts that give the article a wildly biased slant, and is very disappointed that when given the chance to fix the problem, these "journalists" are refusing to do so. All the stuff you're arguing about? Is frankly beside the point, and the arguments of a "true believer," which makes me think that pointing any of this out to you is useless because you don't really WANT to be a critical thinker on this subject.

Reply
Machala
6/25/2018 01:56:12 pm

HAPPY UFO DAY !

Sorry this is a tad long but I couldn't resist. This is from today's NEW YORK TIMES 25/05/21018:

Did you see strange lights in the sky yesterday?
If so, perhaps you spotted an extraterrestrial anniversary celebration! The modern era of ufology (yes, it’s a word) dawned 71 years ago on June 24.
Kenneth Arnold had one of the earliest reported sightings of a U.F.O., in 1947.

Kenneth Arnold had one of the earliest reported sightings of a U.F.O., in 1947.
Idaho Statesman, via Associated Press
That’s when Kenneth Arnold, an Idaho businessman flying a private plane, saw nine disc-like objects zooming impossibly fast past Mount Rainier, in Washington. He told a newspaper, the East Oregonian, about his sighting, and it ran a short article that was picked up by The Associated Press.
Since then, U.F.O. sightings have been reported worldwide, including in Australia, Canada, India and Scotland.
June 24 was also the day, in 1997, the Air Force published a study about a second flying object report in 1947, by a rancher near Roswell, N.M., who found metallic debris scattered there. Rumors grew that an alien spacecraft had crashed. The study intended to debunk rumors about little green people once and for all (whether it succeeded is debatable).
As for Mr. Arnold, stung at being mocked by skeptics, he once complained to an Air Force officer who interviewed him, “If I saw a 10-story building flying through the air I would never say a word about it.”
But he never recanted his original story.


Nancy Wartik wrote today’s Back Story.

Reply
Titus pullo
6/25/2018 09:22:35 pm

U all do realize this is the same as the trump dossier right? False claim verified by “independent” sources reported by “independent” media

Reply
Godric G. Glas
6/26/2018 01:43:54 am

Keep going, Jason.

Reply
G. G. Glas.
6/26/2018 01:48:47 am

https://goo.gl/images/4RztJm

Reply
Joe link
7/1/2018 09:30:01 am

this sounds a bit like those claiming to have found Noah's ark in Turkey. Just give me a ton of money, some of it coming from American fundamentalist universities, and I'll show it to you. I once promised to show one of these groups information about a fraudulent archaeological claim on condition that they publish the information, they declined the offer.

Reply
eoj
7/1/2018 12:47:20 pm

I'm shocked that someone would decline to shoulder your publication costs. What kind of a world are we living in? Those are garbage people! Imagine, not being will to shoulder your publication costs!

Reply
James Griffin
7/1/2018 07:58:11 pm

Metabunk.org debunked the other reports of so-called alien craft sightings, showing that they were insects and normal aircraft.

Reply

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    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
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    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
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    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
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  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
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        • Egyptian Texts >
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      • Medieval Texts >
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        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
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      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
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        • Fragments on Giants
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      • Science and History >
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      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
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        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
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        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • The Shaver Mystery >
          • Lovecraft and the Deros
          • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
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        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
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      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
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        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
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      • Orville Wright on UFOs
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    • The Supernatural >
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      • Defining a Zombie
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      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
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      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
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      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
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      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
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        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
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      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
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      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
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