Part 2A - 'Initiative 300' - UFOs and news media censorship

Following is the top portion of Page 2 of the 'Initiative 300' voter education for the proposed Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission on the November 2010 Denver election ballot. It compares UFOs and news media censorship vs. entertainment media disclosure. Some of the information below has been added to the content that will be in the eight-page printed version. Page 2 will appear as articles Part 2A and Part 2B.

News Media Truth Embargo on UFOs and Extraterrestrials

Since the mid 1950's the U.S. Government's official policy has been to use mainstream media to deny that extraterrestrial "UFOs" are visiting Earth. The CIA has been in charge of this hoax, cover-up, and campaign to silence and discredit people speaking the truth. A 1952 memo reinforcing this part of this claim can be seen here. Even "the most trusted man in America", Walter Cronkite, was involved in the hoax, as well as Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. This quote sums it up:

          "The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."   -  William Colby (1920-1996) former CIA Director

Courageous journalists and talk show hosts are helping to end this news media truth embargo. There is a growing number and too many to list. But they include Larry King (CNN), Art Bell and George Noory (Coast to Coast AM), Jaime Maussan (Mexico City), Richard Syrett (Toronto), Rick Barber (KOA-Denver), Paola Harris (Boulder, CO) and many others. The following article reveals their heroic effort and historic challenge:

Close encounters of the nuclear kind - Mar 31, 2009
By Terry Hansen, Online Journal Guest Writer
See full article here:

Excerpts: "By 1954, military authorities admitted that pilots were reporting between five and ten flying-saucer sightings per night -- this at a time when air traffic was a mere trickle of what it has become. Serious talk of an invasion from outer space was in the air. By December, President Dwight Eisenhower found it necessary to reassure the American public that ' flying saucers were not invading the earth from outer space.' The dismissal was published on the front page of the December 16th New York Times.

Behind the scenes, the CIA was preparing to use its extensive resources to reduce the number of flying saucer stories appearing in the nation's newspapers. Following a review of several high-profile stories, a panel chaired by Dr. Robertson recommended that flying saucers be discredited via a covert, mass-media program of 'training and debunking.' Many of the same institutions that had produced wartime propaganda were to be employed. Meanwhile, UFO-research groups were to be monitored because of their potential impact on public opinion.

In my book, The Missing Times, I reported on new evidence that CBS TV was among the CIA's 'media assets' that participated in this covert UFO-debunking program. In 1966, CBS broadcast UFOs: Friend, Foe or Fantasy, narrated by Walter Cronkite, as part of its 'CBS Reports' documentary series. Cronkite assured his viewers, using false and misleading information, that all UFO reports were due to mistaken perceptions.

In short, there was nothing for the public to worry about, he said. A handwritten letter by Robertson Panel member Dr. Thornton Page, discovered in the Smithsonian's archives by Prof. Michael Swords, confirms the CIA's long-suspected role in the program. In a 1966 letter, Page related to a CIA associate that he 'helped organize the CBS TV show around the Robertson Panel’s conclusions.'…

Censorship and propaganda are highly sophisticated and well-funded activities that consume a huge fraction of the CIA's budget. The sensitive link between flying saucers and nuclear weapons was very carefully hidden using an array of sophisticated psychological techniques. There is evidence that deception expert Dr. R.V. Jones played a key role in planning such tricks.

...As I explain in The Missing Times, there is also evidence that major American news organizations played a central role in the flying saucer deception and are not at all anxious to have this role exposed. Hence, they continue to maintain their silence and ignore the many military UFO witnesses now coming forth. In the Internet Age, however, this gate-keeping role is becoming increasingly ineffective, as indicated by many public opinion polls...

American history for the past 60-some years will need to be drastically rewritten. Academics will be forced to reconsider some of their most cherished assumptions about humanity, its origins, and its role in the larger universe. The credibility of many established corporate and government institutions will be utterly destroyed.  This future is coming, ready or not."

[Terry Hansen is an independent journalist and author of "The Missing Times: News media complicity in the UFO cover-up." See: www.themissingtimes.com  Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal]

The danger of this type of secrecy was addressed by Sarah McClendon, one of the most highly respected and pioneering female journalists and White House correspondents:

          "The real danger to the U.S. and perhaps this whole planet is the government has placed such a heavy blanket of secrecy upon this issue. So much secrecy, those in government who have knowledge showing UFOs are identifiable feel the subject cannot be discussed by those in the know without serious repercussions. Others are afraid their friends and co-workers will think they are crazy if they even so much as insinuate that UFOs are identifiable as manned craft from outside the earth. This particularly applies to newspaper editors and publishers, reporters and analysts. 

          Thus the U.S. is denying itself the chance to learn more about UFOs or to encourage research despite the fact the U. S. stands to gain from such discussions…Not publicized but true is that the Clinton administration, soon after coming to office, had many briefings on the subject. Laurance Rockefeller provided the information for the President and Mrs. Clinton. Others provided documents and verbal briefings to presidential advisors Jack Gibbons (science), Bruce Lindsay (personal), Anthony Lake (national security) and Vice President Albert Gore. About the same time a three hour briefing was given by Dr. Steven Greer to the sitting Director of the CIA, Admiral Woolsey…

        After the Roswell incident, the Air Force replied to reporters' inquiries that this was all part of research using weather balloons and other equipment. [Colonel] Corso and hundreds of others who work or have worked in secret defense and scientific agencies, are willing to swear under oath that alien craft are repeatedly penetrating our airspace."

The censorship and control of the news media on the UFO issue is described in "Contact: Countdown to Transformation" by Steven M. Greer, M.D. These are excerpts:

          "CBS '48 Hours' Fiasco – For example...'48 Hours' ...wanted to do a program about the ET craft seen around Popo, a volcano in Mexico. We went there with the CBS news crew...to have the events documented. Before I left, I signed an agreement with their producer, Kathleen Kennedy, agreeing that they would share any [unedited] footage they got from the expedition with us.

          CBS has their top-of-the-line cameras on location and a key correspondent with us. One evening, the ET craft suddenly emerged from the mouth of the volcano, circled the volcano and shot over toward us, and flew out into space. The CBS cameras filming this and the correspondent came running down the hill exclaiming "Anyone who sees this will know that this is REAL!!"

.          ..The CBS crew returned to their studio with all this film evidence and their correspondent's response to it. But what they actually showed was a fuzzy image of a triangular-looking object with a debunker saying it was an airplane missing its aviation lights!

          ...So I called Kathleen Kennedy and said, 'I'm not sure what your people are doing, but I did not get a copy of this footage as we had agreed upon in writing. Please send me a copy so we will have it as evidence of the event.' She told me she would not give it to me, despite our signed agreement. She ended with 'Go try to enforce it. We’re a multi-billion company, and you don’t have anything. We'll outlast you in court.' We never got the film. That is what you are dealing with at CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN – the whole gamut..."

Others have reinforced claims about CIA control and censorship of the mainstream news media:

William B. Bader, former CIA intelligence officer, briefing members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, The CIA and the Media, by Carl Bernstein:
"There is quite an incredible spread of relationships. You don't need to manipulate Time magazine, for example, because there are [Central Intelligence] Agency people at the management level.'

From Katherine the Great, by Deborah Davis
"You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month." - CIA operative, discussing the availability and prices of journalists willing to peddle CIA propaganda and cover stories." 

So called "third party experts" are also brought into the CIA's campaign of deception. NBC's long-time analyst on space issues is James Oberg. His strategy as a UFO "debunker" involves making statements so wrong and idiotic that they seem merely an attempt to irritate honest scientists and UFO researchers, and confuse the public.

See blog article "Mighty Casey has struck out" by Sarasota Herald Tribune writer Billy Cox

Hopefully, exposing this corruption of the news media will help end oppression and censorship of freedom of information, which is a cornerstone of American freedom.

For more information:

Robertson Panel and CIA efforts to discredit UFO stories using mainstream media

RFK Jr. summarizing the historical decline of truth and real news in mainstream media. [10 mins.]

Center for Media and Democracy – PR Watch
Corruption of news media by government and corporations

See all 8 pages of Initiative 300 voter education