The New York Times
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🎬 Book or film
Contents 7
| Type | Book, film or media |
|---|---|
| Also known as | New York Times |
| On the Timeline | 13 events, 1978–2021 |
The New York Times is a major American daily newspaper. In UFO history it is best known for its article of 16 December 2017 by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean. The article revealed that the Defense Department had spent $22 million on a secret UFO study, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), and published two Navy videos of unidentified objects.[2][3][4] The same team reported further on the program in 2019 and 2020. The coverage set off years of intense interest, but critics have called it thinly sourced and slanted.[2][3][6]
The 2017 article
AATIP came to wide public attention on 16 December 2017 through three stories published the same day, in the Times, The Washington Post and Politico.[2] The Times report, by Cooper, Blumenthal and Kean, said the Pentagon had spent $22 million on the program.[2][4] It reported that "Robert Bigelow, a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid, received most of the money," referring to Robert Bigelow and Harry Reid.[2] It also included skeptical comment from space writer James Oberg, who said "There are plenty of prosaic events and human perceptual traits that can account for these stories" while welcoming more research, and from exoplanet scientist Sara Seager.[2]
The Times published two videos, "FLIR" and "GIMBAL," said to show Navy jets from the carriers Nimitz and Theodore Roosevelt encountering unusually shaped, fast-moving objects. The Washington Post published a third, "GOFAST." The videos had been given to the press by former Pentagon intelligence official Christopher Mellon. See Nimitz "Tic Tac" encounter and GIMBAL and GOFAST videos.[3] Luis Elizondo, who says he directed AATIP, had resigned from the Pentagon in October 2017, protesting that the program was not being taken seriously.[3] In 2019 Reid recalled that when the Times approached him, he agreed to talk about the $22 million "as long as we are not talking about little green men."[2]
Later reporting
- Navy pilots, May 2019. On 26 May 2019 the Times reported that Navy pilots had fully briefed AATIP about objects they met at high altitude off the East Coast between summer 2014 and March 2015.[2]
- Crash retrievals, July 2020. On 23 July 2020 the Times reported that Reid believed crashes of objects of unknown origin may have occurred and that any retrieved material should be studied. It added that he did not say such crashes had happened or that material had been studied in secret for decades. Reports at the time also repeated physicist Eric Davis's claim that the government might hold an "off-world vehicle."[2]
- Opinion pieces. In the Times, astrophysicist Adam Frank argued that the pilots' reports and cockpit videos did not "amount to much" as evidence of alien technology. He suggested the objects might be drones flown by rival nations to probe U.S. defenses.[3]
Earlier coverage
The Shellenberger UAP timeline cites a Times report of 3 August 1997 on the CIA history by Gerald Haines. Haines's history said that Project Blue Book had hidden U-2 and SR-71 overflights by calling them unidentified or natural. The timeline notes that the media took up the report, helping spread the view that there was "nothing" to UAP. See CIA's role in the study of UFOs, 1947–90.[7]
Criticism
Journalism professor Keith Kloor called the coverage "a curious narrative that appears to be driven by thinly-sourced and slanted reporting." He said it gave only cursory attention to prosaic explanations and played up the catchy "UFO" label.[3] Skeptic Robert Sheaffer, reviewing the 2021 book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, argued that the Pentagon program had been rooted in the paranormal from the start. That, he said, undercut the Times's picture of a military study of unidentified aircraft. He cited the New York Post's Steven Greenstreet, who quoted Kean saying she had left out the ghosts and werewolves because "the angle I was taking in my reporting was to try to get credibility for the subject."[6] Kean has written about UFOs since 2000. Her 2010 book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record was a Times best seller.[4]
When Kean and Blumenthal had whistleblower David Grusch's story in 2023, the Times and Politico declined it. It appeared instead on the website The Debrief on 5 June 2023.[5]
Notes on the earlier version of this article
- Effects of the coverage. The earlier version said the reports prompted congressional interest, the UAP Task Force and the 2021 intelligence report, and that they changed how mainstream media covered the subject. The sources read here describe the 2017 stories as bringing AATIP to wide attention and setting off "fevered speculation." They do not trace these specific outcomes to the reporting.[2][3]
- The 2017 story itself. The Times article (reference 1) could not be read here (HTTP 403). Its contents are described from the Wikipedia accounts.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- CAUS lawsuit and the CIA UFO papers (15 December 1978) — Researchers claim the CIA ran secret emergency UAP studies during sighting waves.
- Samuel Stratton and the SAC base overflights (20 December 1978) — Rep. Samuel Stratton raises concerns over unknown aircraft flying over Strategic Air Command bases.
- Cheyenne Mountain and Lake Kickapoo sighting (1986) (December 1986) — A Navy officer says sensors at Cheyenne Mountain detected a UAP.
- CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 (3 August 1997) — A CIA history by Gerald Haines covers the agency's role in UAP study from 1947 to 1990.
- Advanced Deep Space Transport group (2001) — A deep-space propulsion study group examines exotic propulsion.
- USS Princeton data recordings claim (14 November 2004) — USS Princeton radar staff say two men took the Tic Tac encounter data recordings.
- DIA interest in Skinwalker Ranch (21 October 2007) — Bigelow says the DIA expressed interest in strange events at Skinwalker Ranch.
- DeLonge on hidden crashes (April 2016) — DeLonge says advisers told him of multiple crashes hidden by counterintelligence.
- Christopher Mellon goes public (2016) (9 May 2016) — Former Pentagon intelligence official Christopher Mellon speaks publicly about UAP for the first time.
- DeLonge's research groups (2016) (31 August 2016) — Tom DeLonge says he became involved with groups studying crashed craft and biology.
- Eric Davis on an existing crash-retrieval program (24 June 2018) — Eric Davis says a crash retrieval program still exists.
- Eric Davis on underfunded reverse-engineering (30 April 2019) — Eric Davis says crashes happened and reverse engineering is split into small, underfunded efforts.
- Elizondo on interference with AATIP (26 May 2021) — Elizondo says some officials interfered with AATIP's work.
References
- The New York Times — 2017 AATIP story · nytimes.com · archived copy
- Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Pentagon UFO videos — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Leslie Kean — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Robert Sheaffer, "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon — book review", Bad UFOs (30 Jun 2022) · badufos.blogspot.com
- UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, entry for 3 August 1997 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program”, “Pentagon UFO videos”, “Leslie Kean”, “David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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