Reporting on Aliens: The Truth Is… Out There?

Or is it?

Yesterday, 8 News Now, a local TV news station in Las Vegas, devoted a segment to an April 30 incident involving a family calling the police after allegedly seeing “non-human” beings crash into their backyard; a tale as old as time! The clip, which went viral on Twitter, is remarkable not necessarily for the story — it’s a pretty by-the-numbers experience of a purported close encounter with the third kind — but because it’s journalists lending a veneer of credibility to what’s usually relegated to the fringe. 

David Charns, an 8 News investigative reporter, obtained police officer video, 911 calls, and witness testimony that lends credibility to the theory that something mysterious — we don’t know what — fell from the sky. 

“We’ve been in contact with the family in that video … they seem very reasonable and obviously quite scared as you heard from that call,” Charns recounts to the 8 News co-hosts. “They don’t seem impaired in any way… sources say something was in their yard. Exactly what. We don’t know.” 

He also says that local military bases have confirmed they weren’t involved in the incident but that in the early morning of May 1, local sources witnessed “some SUVs circling the area” and it could have been a “piece of equipment that malfunctioned” or something — again, we don’t know what — was retrieved from the family’s backyard. Um, what could possibly be happening? 

Charns contextualizes the purported alien spotting with recent news of how Air Force veteran and whistleblower David Grusch went on NewsNation to discuss “a top secret program that has reportedly found wreckage of fully intact UFOs.” (He refers to UFOs as UAPs… Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). This claim, which the Pentagon denies, has accrued so much attention that Congress is set to hold a hearing on the whistleblower’s allegations about a UAP cover-up.  

We all know that one person who knows someone who knows someone who claims to have seen a flying saucer racing through the night after their truck broke down on a desolate highway. Part of the ritual of hearing that story is saying it’s just a story and immediately casting doubt. Through dismissing this as nonsense, we cling to our confidence to what is fact. Water is wet. The earth is round. Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. As Jodi Dean writes in her collection of essays, Aliens in America: Conspiracy Cultures from Outerspace to Cyberspace, when a UFO witness comes forward with their claims, they open themselves up to a ritualistic prying and scrutiny from the general public (for instance, Charns felt the need to reassure his viewers that the Vegas family was “reasonable” and not “impaired”). These testimonies give people a chance to view objective reality through the lens of one’s subjective experience. Since authentic corroboration is impossible, engaging with story becomes a way of approaching the world. If you want to believe, you shall, and so, choosing to believe is both a philosophical and political act, according to Dean. 

Of course, in the age of countless conspiracies, there is a fear of platforming another fringe idea circulating in the bowels of the internet. So, how should journalists approach these claims? With a healthy degree of skepticism, or like NewsNation, following it as a legitimate story from a legitimate source with a legitimate experience? Would you feel comfortable writing, “I am on the UAP beat” in your next cover letter?

The skies in New York City are a hellish orange red and polluted in smoke. Deepfake videos are sewing chaos in our elections and economy. Kim Cattrall is returning to the Sex and the City franchise after years of publicly beefing with Sarah Jessica Parker. Is the government covering up wreckage of alien hovercrafts that a random Vegas family just so happened to see? 

Maybe, the truth isn’t out there. It’s all around us.

Or, perhaps, this is all just another distraction from the climate apocalypse and a last ditch effort for clicks.

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