Those among us who have staked their reputations and
sometimes longevity on trying to make others aware that UFOs are a real
mystery may have mouths agape today after CBS-TV's
60 Minutes went whole-hog UFO Sunday evening. While, yes, the
subject was minimally touched upon when Robert Bigelow was interviewed
some time back, this is the first opportunity the hard-hitting news show
ever took over the decades to explore and emphasize the seriousness of
the UFO (or UAP, what's your pleasure?) issue.
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By Robert Barrow
The UFO Chronicles
5-19-21
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With millions of viewers still unfamiliar with the facts about UFO observations
receiving a top-notch introduction to the subject on a commercial TV network,
maybe those of us who endured years of catcalls from the uninitiated can finally
shed adoring terms showered upon us -- you know the words, crackpot, lunatic,
whack job, flim-flammers, etc.
Did anything in the report make me want to shout at the TV screen?
Yes. I continue to marvel at experienced military personnel and legislators who
fret that this enigma in the sky could be Russian or Chinese weapons? Whaaa...?
Do they really not care or understand that these air / sea / land shows have
been tracked visually and on radar since the 1940s, and observed by just plain
folk way before that?
Forget Einstein. I think Charles Fort was closer to the truth. Perhaps property
we are and property we shall always be.
Quick, get me a time machine so we can bring back from the departed Coral and
Jim Lorenzen, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Major Donald E. Keyhoe, Richard Hall, Frank
Edwards, Hal Starr and a literal plethora of original UFO researchers and
investigators whose early work and pleas for understanding held far more value
than a zillion stupid and regressive words from uninformed skeptics and
professional debunkers.
Oh, I've no doubt whatsoever that those long-deceased veterans appreciative of
real UFO science and legitimate UFO journalism would enthusiastically return
just long enough to watch this unexpectedly welcome
60 Minutes report,
affirming in spades that their efforts were important.
In TV terms, the account is big stuff for another reason. Those of you old
enough to remember will recall when CBS presented its disastrous "documentary,"
entitled
"UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy" in the 1960s, hosted by Walter
Cronkite, which turned out to be nothing more than a pathetic hit piece for
truth about the UFO phenomenon (and the government "helped," as we recall). A
few years later, on December 4, 1976 I sat before the weekend TV screen, shaking
my head over the nonsense spoon-fed by CBS-TV in a "Young People's Special"
entitled,
"Flying Saucers From Outer Space: What's it All About?"
Maybe, one hopes, CBS and other network news divisions have seen the light(s) at
last, and will proceed with respectable journalism accordingly. ABC-TV can take
a few hints from CBS as well, as its occasional hour-long UFO-related
presentations have proven dreadful.
60 Minutes often tends to turn a societal key, and if changes regarding
UFO publicity and facts are to expand, this report's potential effects on public
attitudes certainly can't be overlooked.
