Terry Hansen is an independent journalist with a special interest in scientific controversies and the politics of knowledge. Hansen holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in science journalism from the University of Minnesota. He has followed the UFO controversy for much of his life and has occasionally written about it for various media. Prior to writing The Missing Times, Hansen worked as a writer and editor for several technology publications.

A yawning chasm has long existed between the way UFO sightings are portrayed by small-town news organizations and the way they are described in the elite news media. At the grass-roots level, reporters and editors are willing and able to provide straightforward UFO accounts from local citizens and officials. But somewhere between these local news outlets and national news media, UFO news stories either vanish or become grossly distorted. Furthermore, top national reporters appear to have no understanding of UFO history, can't seem to get basic facts correct, and display astonishing acceptance of dubious official explanations for UFO events. What is the source of this persistent bias displayed by America's elite reporters and editors? If UFOs are truly a trivial matter, as the US government has long maintained, this behavior is deeply puzzling, and suggests widespread professional incompetence among leading news organizations. If UFOs are an urgent national-security issue, then the behavior of the news organizations suddenly becomes much less mysterious. A review of the historical relationship between the national news organizations and the federal government shows how these organizations have worked together to shape American public opinion during times of national crisis. The history of the UFO controversy provides evidence that the same censorship and propaganda methods deployed during wars and national emergencies have been used to shape public thinking about the UFO situation.

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