On Monday 27 September 2010, the National Press Club in Washington, DC was the venue for a news conference on the subject of UFOs. The NPC website makes no mention of the event in its news section and various search attempts proved futile. The only conclusion to draw regarding the lack of NPC publicity is that the event was of the "non-sponsored" variety. It must have cost the former Air Force fellows a small fortune to secure the podium and pay for the cookies.
While the conspiracy clubs are all a-tremble with discussions of "disclosure", the media and government took the opportunity to mock or trivialize the event. Gannett/USA Today reporter Ledyard King was assigned to attend but his report was piped to local outlets rather than appearing in the flagship newspaper. Instead, USA Today noted the conference with a stub leading to the trivia piece by Mitch Marconi, staff writer for the Post Chronicle, which in turn linked to King's report. (Culpable reliability?)
As for government acknowledgment and interest in what the former airmen had to say, the cookie monster from the Washington Post reported that "a "John Bailey" from the House Armed Services Committee" attended. The outsourced USA Today reporter offered that . . . "an Air Force spokeswoman cited a 2005 fact sheet that said: "Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations."" Topic dismissed.
When it comes to supporting individuals and issues, The National Press Club favors the pompous over the purposeful and the cliches over the questions. Why bother with investigations, reports or findings by serious inquirers, when fact sheets, top-ten lists and analyses by very important impotents will do for national public consumption? May that be the information we glean from yesterday's NPC event news coverage.
While the conspiracy clubs are all a-tremble with discussions of "disclosure", the media and government took the opportunity to mock or trivialize the event. Gannett/USA Today reporter Ledyard King was assigned to attend but his report was piped to local outlets rather than appearing in the flagship newspaper. Instead, USA Today noted the conference with a stub leading to the trivia piece by Mitch Marconi, staff writer for the Post Chronicle, which in turn linked to King's report. (Culpable reliability?)
As for government acknowledgment and interest in what the former airmen had to say, the cookie monster from the Washington Post reported that "a "John Bailey" from the House Armed Services Committee" attended. The outsourced USA Today reporter offered that . . . "an Air Force spokeswoman cited a 2005 fact sheet that said: "Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations."" Topic dismissed.
When it comes to supporting individuals and issues, The National Press Club favors the pompous over the purposeful and the cliches over the questions. Why bother with investigations, reports or findings by serious inquirers, when fact sheets, top-ten lists and analyses by very important impotents will do for national public consumption? May that be the information we glean from yesterday's NPC event news coverage.
