Conspiracy Theories and Government Secrets: Why Aren’t Journalists Probing the Drone/UFO Phenomenon?

Who Knows What
Dr. Larry Burriss
12/23/2024

A couple of semesters ago a student in my Mass Media and National Security class said he thought “they” were paying me to present one particular explanation of one particular conspiracy theory.
When I jokingly said, “Well, if they are paying me, I wouldn’t be able to tell you, would I?” He immediately said, “See, that proves you are ‘one of them’.”
Sigh.

So, what’s the secret about all of the aerial sightings over New Jersey? Extraterrestrial spacecraft? Airplanes or drones? And if so, ours or theirs? And if so, secret or just not identified?
At this point it’s very clear the government isn’t telling all it knows. After all, the operative statement seems to be, “They pose no threat to national security.”

But an easy follow-up question, which, by the way, I haven’t heard any reporter ask is, “How do you know they don’t pose a threat?”
And then there were the closed-door congressional hearings. Why was it necessary to have secret hearings, if not to discuss secret information and details, which probably relates to how the devices are being tracked.
For the moment let’s assume the government does tell us, “Yes, we know what they are, but we’re not going to tell you what they are and how we know, because that information relates directly to protecting national security.”
Well, do you really think that will satisfy everyone? Absolutely not. Because although every answer leads to more questions, at some point the government is going to have to refuse to answer because the answer does relate to serious national security concerns.

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So, at some point the government is going to have to rely on something called the “Glomar Principle,” a court-created doctrine that says in some cases, when someone asks for government information, officials can simply say, “We can’t say anything about what you’re asking. We’re not saying we can’t say anything, we’re saying we can’t even say we can’t say anything.”

Of course, going down that path leads to insanity: I can’t tell you that I can’t tell you what I can’t tell you about,” and so ad infinitum.
And it’s not just the government that isn’t saying much. There are a number of

questions it seems reporters could ask, but aren’t. And why aren’t they asking? Well, the answer to that question leads to some very uncomfortable conclusions, which, at this point, I’ll leave up to you.
I’m Larry Burriss.