RETRACTION: When I searched Google for this, I found nada from America, but when I specifically tried "Fox News Edgar Mitchell" I found it. So, no media blackout, just a UFO story like any other. Sorry to waste peoples time (I am not a believer in this stuff but I like to read about it sometimes).
Two days ago (July 23rd), a respected NASA astronaut, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, said in an interview in Britain's Kerrang! radio (a rock music station), that "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real."
He continued: "It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it."
You'd expect tabloids to be interested in this kind of news, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. certainly was - the story was printed in Britain's Daily Mail and Austrailia's Daily Telegraph. But given that the astronaut was American, why not print it in the New York Post? Why no mention on Yahoo News' "Odd News" feed?
More below the flip.
DIARY NOW IRRELEVENT - comments appear below as I wrote them before I found the Fox News link.
I don't believe in conspiracies or UFOs - but if an important figure has something to say on the matter, I feel that I deserve the option to read about it.
Here is the story, reported without any sensationalism, fron News Corp's Austrailian website, news.com.au. It's a very short article, so you as well take a second to read something that every American media outlet has passed on.
Here's clips from the interview on Kerrang!, also containing NASA's response.
A NASA spokesman issued a full denial, but also noted, "Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue." This is in
Boing-Boing reported this as well.
So, is this newsworthy? We don't have to believe it, and I don't think that I do (but I never say never). But shouldn't we be able to read about it? Is there some kind of general agreement by the American press never to report on such matters no matter how juicy and profitable the story is? Does the seriousness of this source - the 6th man to walk on the moon - make the story more newsworthy or less newsworthy?
If Rupert Murdoch will print it in the UK and Austrailia, why not in the US? I'll hazard a guess - because the story is embarassing to the Republican Administration, and publishing it in the US could endanger Fox News's "special" relationship to the White House. I'm not alleging that there is a conspiracy to hide the truth about UFOs, but it does seem like the media, despite an obvious profit motive, has broader reasons for avoiding the issue.