The UFO Phenomenon - Seeing Is Believing (Peter Jennings tonight

Almost 50 percent of Americans, according to recent polls, and millions of people elsewhere in the world believe that UFOs are real. For many it is a deeply held belief.

For decades there have been sightings of UFOs by millions and millions of people. It is a mystery that only science can solve, and yet the phenomenon remains largely unexamined. Most of the reporting on this subject by the mainstream media holds those who claim to have seen UFOs up to ridicule.

On Feb. 24, "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" takes a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. "As a journalist," says Jennings, "I began this project with a healthy dose of skepticism and as open a mind as possible. After almost 150 interviews with scientists, investigators and with many of those who claim to have witnessed unidentified flying objects, there are important questions that have not been completely answered — and a great deal not fully explained."

"Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" airs Thursday, Feb. 24 from 8-10 p.m. ET on ABC. The program will be broadcast in High Definition.

This two-hour primetime special reports on the entire scope of the UFO experience — from the first famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 to the present day. The program draws on interviews with police officers, pilots, military personnel, scientists and ordinary citizens who give extraordinary accounts of encounters with the unexplained. Also included are the voices of professional skeptics about UFOs, including scientists who are leading the search for life forms beyond Earth elsewhere in the universe.

The program explores the facts behind the enduring mystery of the incident at Roswell, N.M., and looks into the strange stories of alien abductions. Among the UFO cases presented:

Minot Air Force Base, N.D., October 1968 — Sixteen airmen on the ground and the crew of an airborne B-52 witness a massive unidentified object hovering near the base.

Phoenix, March 1997 — Hundreds witness a huge triangular craft moving slowly over the city.

St. Clair County, Ill., January 2000 — Police officers in five adjoining towns all independently report witnessing a giant craft with multiple bright lights moving silently across the sky at a very low altitude.

Today if you report a UFO to the U.S. government you will be informed that the Air Force conducted a 22-year investigation that ended in 1969 and concluded that UFOs are not a threat to national security and are of no scientific interest. But as one of the world's leading theoretical physicists says in the program, "You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings from some object created by … a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology."

"Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" is produced by PJ Productions and Springs Media for ABC News. Mark Obenhaus and Tom Yellin are the executive producers.

Peter Jennings and UFOs: Spinning and Deceiving

By Richard M. Dolan

February 25, 2005

Within the UFO community, this was the most anticipated media event in a long time, perhaps since the 50th anniversary of Roswell in 1997. Cable networks, such as the History Channel and SciFi Channel, have been getting into the mix with documentaries on the subject for some time, but the major networks have been silent for years. And whenever there was an occasional treatment of the subject, it was always to debunk.

So when it appeared that ABC was attempting to do something "serious" about the subject, a few people asked me what I thought would happen. Especially since I have written previously that I absolutely did not believe that a major network would be able to handle this subject in a forthright manner.

To such readers, I predicted that ABC would not completely debunk UFOs, but it would also not endorse them. I said under no circumstances would there be any hint of credence given to a conspiratorial angle, that I would be shocked if any mention was made of deep black military technology, or of claims that we are now in possession of alien technology and bodies.

As far as the UFO topic goes, that’s where the action is, at least for those of us who are interested in the structure of power of this world.

These predictions turned out to be true. No surprise, and I imagine there were others who predicted the same thing. Although I have to say I was surprised by the number of pre-Special commentators who seemed to think that this event could trigger some form of immanent disclosure.

I support the goal of UFO disclosure. Indeed, I consider it to be a critical goal of UFO research. But we must realize that if or when disclosure ever comes, it will be on someone’s terms. That is, the terms of covert players that have a specific agenda. Under such a situation, UFO researchers must be vigilant in determining how much information is being given out, and how much of it is true.

We may ask, why would ABC do a UFO special at all? For ratings? This in fact is what many media people cynically seem to be implying. In fact, it appears that the special helped ABC a little in that regard, but not a lot.

Could it be out of a sense of sheer intellectual and public responsibility?

Okay, now that we’re done laughing, let’s move on...

It is ludicrous to think that ABC’s leadership just decided to "do" a special like this. When dealing with the powerful media – which George Orwell today would certainly describe as our Ministry of Truth – one must assume there is a political (and in this case national security) goal. This is, after all, a critical national security topic. Major media is in bed with our national security apparatus. This ain’t your great-grandpa’s U.S. of A., sonny. It’s become more like the old Soviet Union. Indeed, we have to watch ABC in the same way that the people who used to be called "Sovietologists" analyzed official Soviet public statements. "What does so-and-so really mean by that? What is the significance of this person’s presence or absence at an official function?" As Tass was to the Soviet elite – the primary mouthpiece and propaganda instrument – so are the major networks of today, including ABC, to America’s power elite.

Thus, we might ask, was ABC attempting to "prepare the public?" Or, instead, some form of spin control?

Looks like spin control to me.

The program essentially worked by building up something of a legitimate-looking case, a kind of "bringing out the best evidence" (which was not the best evidence), then puncturing the case with the help of spokespersons for the scientific community. I say spokespersons because many of these people weren’t scientists. Thus, you set up a straw man and then knock him down.

For about the first hour, the show provided a decidedly "pro-UFO" crescendo. We saw Art Bell and his wife discuss their UFO sighting, we saw some Phoenix lights video, clips of CUFOS Director Mark Rodighier, and (in my opinion) a very good handling of the Illinois "Cop" sighting of 2000. The space given to skeptics for most of that first hour was limited, although peppered in various places so you didn’t forget about them.

The next segment provided some history, of a sort. For anyone who knows this material, this was extremely basic and low level. But more seasoned UFO researchers and readers must remember that most viewers of this special are at the Kindergarten-or-less level of knowledge. If the typical researcher is at a level nine or ten, then most people are at a zero or one. So if the ABC special gets even to the level of three ... well, you get the idea.

I understand that you have to walk before you can run, and it’s not realistic to expect ABC to condense a topic with the complexity of the UFO phenomenon into a mere two hours without a lot of material ending up on the cutting floor. But what we had was sheer spin.

Mr. Jennings repeats the U.S. government position (a lie) that it is not in the business of investigating UFOs. Well, that essentially removes the military from this discussion.

But why, one may ask, during the days of Project Blue Book, when the Air Force did have a public investigation of UFOs, did they dishonestly debunk so many reports? ABC certainly showed that Blue Book was dishonest, that it was never a legitimate investigative effort. Here was an opportunity for honest journalism to attack some significant issues.

Instead, we "learn" that the orders to debunk UFO reports were in order to remove the threat of clogged communication channels caused by a hysterical public. Nothing to do with the objects themselves.

While the recounting of the 1968 Minot AFB UFO encounter was well done, the opportunity for asking some serious questions was ignored. Such as, what could that object have been? Or, what is the likelihood that this incident had repercussions within the military-intelligence community hierarchy that were beyond Blue Book?

That was essentially the first hour. The balloon was expanding, albeit in a conventional and sanitized manner. Still, for much of America, I would bet that even this was pretty strong stuff.

So, it was time to let some air out.

Thus we get the SETI people. We get to hear about Jill Tarter’s UFO sighting, which was actually the moon. (Seemingly implying that all UFO sightings are conventional objects). We get Frank Drake and Seth Shostak. Why?

Then we come to Roswell. Roswell is important because it has become, in the public mind especially, the cornerstone of the "conspiracy" argument. In reality, an overwhelming argument for a UFO government conspiracy can be very easily made without reference to Roswell, but never mind. You kill the one and you at least disable the other for the time being.

Jennings immediately and ceaselessly used the word "myth" to describe the Roswell crash of 1947. ABC pulled out all the stops, even to the extent of seriously maligning the most persistent Roswell researcher of all, Stanton Friedman. This was cheap and underhanded. Friedman was given almost no air time whatsoever, and was portrayed as a cheap "promoter" of the Roswell myth, like a modern day P. T. Barnum. This is absurd. Without recourse to anything but the official Air Force propaganda, Roswell was decreed by ABC to be an article of faith, with no credible witnesses, and possessing "not a shred of evidence." Roswell may or may not have been everything Friedman or other proponents have maintained, but the Air Force study – itself a deeply flawed undertaking – was accepted without reservation.

With a half hour to go, the Special came to abductions. I was expecting to see Dr. Michael Persinger on this segment, discussing tectonic stress theory and the sense of "presence." Fortunately, I was wrong. But in fact the replacement crew was just as bad. Thus, after a sympathetic treatment of Budd Hopkins, we get Harvard psychologists and ... yes, sleep disorder paralysis. What was galling about this part was the absence of the late John Mack, the other Harvard professor. Before Mack was killed last summer (some believe suspiciously) by a motorist on a lonely road late at night while in Britain, he had been interviewed for this special. Why was he left off? Inexcusable.

Abduction researchers will tell you, by the way, that despite the sleep paralysis argument, there is physicality to this experience, in the form of odd and unexplainable body marks (scoops, triangular-patterned dot formations, etc.) While this is not proof of abductions per se, these marks are real and common among abductees. A truly dispassionate documentary would have dealt with this.

Finally, we reach the problems of space travel. Yes, the "distance" argument. "The aliens can’t get here from there." What was surprising was that ABC was so 19th century about all this. The speed of light barrier? C’mon. Fortunately, the inclusion of physicist Michio Kaku threw some cold water on this idea.

Essentially, the program came down to he said vs. she said. Wheels spinning while the vehicle moved nowhere.

What was notably absent were the political connections. No mention of Area 51 or S-4. No mention of black world technology. No mention of the many rumors of alien technology and bodies. No inclusion of Apollo 14 astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell. For some time now, Dr. Mitchell has been saying publicly that elite sources have told him about alien bodies and technology being studied at deep levels. When a moon-walking astronaut makes such a statement, that is news worthy.

Ultimately, by focusing on this topic as purely a matter of science, and not of public policy or politics, the ABC special defanged a topic that is potentially explosive. For secrecy about UFOs is potentially the most destabilizing secret of all.

There were other subtle things going on with this special. The depictions of Peter Davenport and Art Bell were especially interesting. Both men were shot with lighting that accentuated their aloneness and provided an aura of eccentricity about both of them – out there in the middle of nowhere, so to speak.

And what was going on with those commercials? Infomercials that sold products for losers – LoserWare? – such as people who can’t flip an egg, or need help organizing their teacups. These are the types of infomercials you expect to see on late night cable stations, but ... Prime Time ABC? The message is clear: people who watch UFO specials are morons.

Spin, spin, and more spin.

I do confess to wonder, however, why now? ABC could have left this issue alone. By broaching it at all, even in this tightly controlled manner, there is the possibility that more people will become interested to know more. There were segments, after all, that would attract the attention of an intelligent skeptic. The military encounters, the police encounters.

The door may have opened just a crack, and it’s always possible that events will take an unexpected turn. The Special did not debunk UFOs, after all. At the end of it, as I see it, anyway, the phenomenon was still standing.

I’m not sure how this will play out. My feeling is that it won’t go any further, but I could be wrong. It is just possible that masses (that’s us) may surprise the mighty. As a wise person said, "all revolutions are impossible – until they happen. Then they’re inevitable."

Thanks DAVE,

Here's an interesting commentary on Jenning's program by someone who's been there with a relative who's been there:

Used by permission from his website (I have standing permission as long as his copyright is noted, respected and a link is provided. EMPHASES in bold and color, are my own--Quix):

WHITLEY'S WEBSITE LINK--HERE: http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal/

BTW, I believe his site is worth subscribing to, for those interested in the topic.

---------------------------------------------

The much heralded ABC special on UFOs has come and gone. Predictably, it was more of the same, a large number of lies sprinkled with a few truths. At least it wasn’t as relentlessly negative as such programs have generally been in the past. But people like Peter Jennings and his producers are cursed with the belief that they can understand—or already do understand—what they are looking at. The reality is that the UFO phenomenon is the most complex event in history, and a cursory examination of its surface by a few overworked and ill-informed television producers is not going to succeed in any way whatsoever to come to any truth about it.

They are filled with belief in their own competence, however. The result is that their efforts become an exercise in hubris. They end up making judgements based on inadequate information because they believe that what they have gathered is sufficient. But it is not sufficient, it only fulfills their expectations and serves their assumptions. That's always where they stop, and it’s never enough.

Jennings was somewhat open to the notion that some UFOs might be actual unknowns, and he actually told the truth, for once, about Project Bluebook: it was indeed a publicity stunt.

But the characterization of the Roswell Incident as a hoax and the people attempting to investigate it as cultists was a grotesque lie, and, I think, an intentional one. It is classic disinformation—tell a little truth so that your lie will be swallowed along with it. Of course, how could anything more be expected from a man like Jennings? He’s a prostitute to the establishment, nothing more or less, and it is in the interest of the establishment to conceal the reality of Roswell.

Something went wrong there. It went very wrong. And it is somebody's fault, and, to this day, that somebody is terrified that the public will discover that we had a truly magnificent chance at Roswell, and our side blew it.

[Qx emphases]:
In 1988, my uncle told me that he had personally been aware of and involved with the management of the debris that had been brought from Roswell to Wright Field in 1947. My uncle Edward Strieber was an honorable man, indeed, a very honorable man. He spent his career in the Air Force, mostly working in areas that were extremely classified. He was in a position to know what he was talking about, and, as I say, he was an honorable man.

Not only that, he introduced me to his commanding officer and old friend, General Arthur Exon, who could not have been more frank. He stated, and this is a direct quote: “Everyone from the White House on down knew that what we had found was not of this world within 24 hours of our finding it.”

And he, also, was an honorable man who spent a sterling career in service to his country.

So who am I to believe, two honorable soldiers, or a man like Peter Jennings, in love with his own silly assumptions and willing to lie for profit?

[QUIX: Of course, naysayers seem to be soooooooo compelled to the side AWAY FROM THE HONORABLE SOURCES that they almost act and sound as if they have NO CHOICE but to disbelieve. Fascinating. And the naysayers want us to believe that THEY are the logical, scientific ones. Sheesh!]

Give me the soldiers, please. What they told me about Roswell was true. Therefore, the honest and honorable people involved in the Roswell case are the researchers like Stanton Friedman. The ones who ‘debunk’ it are professional liars or ignorant fools, pure and simple.

This gets me to the way the abductees were treated. I just cannot imagine why Budd Hopkins keeps exposing himself to people like Jennings. What this man has given up for the abductees is, essentially, everything. Jennings sneered that he is an artist, not a scientist. What he should have said was the truth: that this artist, out of the decency in his heart, gave up his career and, essentially, his life for people who were hurting, because science in its arrogance and stupidity would not help them.

[QUIX: AMEN, WHITLEY. AMEN.]

The reality of Budd Hopkins is this: he is old, he is ill, he is broke. That is his reward for a lifetime of extremely courageous service to humanity. If he is a cultist, then where are the Rolls Royces, where are the doting followers? And for that matter, if I am simply sitting back and making a fortune off my books, then where is that fortune?

I am not as poor as Budd, it’s true, but I give back at every level of my life. I have supported this website for years, and this website does good, it does a world of good. If nothing else, it serves as an antidote to the lies and propaganda spread by the arrogant garbage that have taken the high ground in this so-called free society of ours.

There is a horror behind all of this: it is that, because of the way that people like Jennings characterize the abduction phenomenon as the product of fringe cultism and delusional thinking, the visitors remain free to do with us what they will.

And that, bottom line, I suspect, was the purpose of this program. True, they paid lip service to UFO reality. But when it came to the important stuff, they spread disinformation of a kind that is devastatingly harmful to mankind.

We need to face some facts: the abduction phenomenon is real, it is invasive, and there is nothing whatsoever that anybody can do about it. That, incidentally, is the great secret: the reason the government lies and uses things like laughter and skilled disinformation like the Jennings special to dismiss the phenomenon is that the reality behind it is terrifying and they are helpless.

I often ask the disclosure proponents if they actually expect the president to go on TV and say that UFOs are real, and that we can do nothing to control their access to our airspace. From there, it is just a short step to the abduction evidence, which involves an abundance of physical traces like implants which defy medical explanation, and a wealth of anecdotal reportage that is at once exceedingly strange, exceedingly provocative, and, frankly, suggests the presence of a great and hidden danger in our world that we cannot control.

The Jennings special took it all to another level of

propaganda.

They admitted a certain amount of truth in order that their poison pill of lies would be swallowed with it. For a journalist, there can be no more despicable act. [QX EMPHASIS]

I believe in the soul. I believe in an afterlife. I also believe that it is incumbent upon us all to live to the highest ethical standards in this life, or face in the next the consequences of not having done so.

All I have to say more is this: I am certainly glad that I don’t have Peter Jennings’ soul. When I die, I will go to God with these realities imprinted on my being: I never lied; I always strove to lift myself and all whom I encountered to the best moral state we could achieve; I took the road less traveled, knowing that it would be hard. I did so because I was given the chance to, and I saw a chance to help my fellow man, and so I took the chance.

So, here is my response to Mr. Jennings and the dirty little men who lurk in his shadow, whispering their lies to him: First, Roswell really happened, and it is the key to everything, because the Air Force made a world-historical mistake there that has led to our being in the state we are in now: isolated on this earth, swimming in ignorance, and denied what is the birthright of every intelligent species, which is access to the great cosmos. Second, the most important aspect of the whole UFO phenomenon is abduction. As ugly as it is, it is also our only point of contact with the outside. And there is a message being sent from them to us. It has nothing to do with radio telescopes and the adolescent tomfoolery of SETI, and everything to do with the hearts, minds and bodies—and the souls—of the abductees.

You want a communication from the ‘aliens,’ SETI? You want a dose of the truth, Mr. Jennings? Just ask us. We are that communication, and we are that truth.

THANKS TONS, WHITLEY. Much appreciated, and, personally, spot on in a list of ways. --Quix

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