He is nearly singlehandedly uncovering the biggest media coverup of our lives. “How I got into covering this subject is I honestly started out thinking I was going to write a debunking book,” NewsNation’s Reality Check host Ross Coulthart humbly stated. “I wrote a book called ‘In Plain Sight: An Investigation into Impossible Science and UFOs.’ And I slowly began to realize that this was a huge story, a meritorious story.”
The subject, which many journalists in the media see as a death knell, is what Coulthart believes is the biggest story of his career.
“I was talking to people in the national security establishment, intelligence officers, military people, senior officers, senior people who’d served in multiple different presidential administrations. They were all telling me the same thing. This is real.”
Road to Disclosure
The tinfoil hats are off. And cold hard facts are being presented on Saturday, June 13, at 8 PM ET on a NewsNation special. “It’s recorded there was a decision made in the early 1950s by the Central Intelligence Agency to use ridicule, stigma, and taboo to try and shut down the UFO subject because they didn’t want to investigate it.”
Once convinced of UAPs, the attorney-turned-investigative journalist was not going to accept the standard media narrative. “We went against the grain. We could see where the story and where the evidence was taking us. So we followed those leads, and I think you’ve seen a fairly unique piece of journalism from NewsNation in the last few years.”
“Even when we were suffering attacks from other legacy media who told us we were going down a crazy rabbit hole, I think even they are now going very quiet and realizing there is something to this. That’s our point.”
He affirmed, “Our point very much in this show this weekend is how far we have come and how much further we need to go in order to get to the kind of disclosure that we think is necessary?”
The Risk of Catastrophic Disclosure
Coulthart is applauding President Donald Trump for the more than 200 files released on UAPs, but it isn’t enough. The reason Coulthart believes more disclosure is essential is because of what he calls “the possibility of catastrophic disclosure.”
He likened this disclosure to Edward Snowden’s 2013 leak of classified documents. “In desperation to try to reveal illegal activities by the U.S. government, he revealed things that were incredibly damaging to successful U.S. intelligence operations overseas against foreign adversary rivals.”
He added, “While a lot of people applaud what Snowden did, I do think there needs to be a question mark about the catastrophe that that caused for intelligence gathering.”
With a hint of urgency in his cadence, Coulthart deduced this could be an even bigger problem. “The United States has been involved irrefutably in the retrieval and reverse engineering of alien spacecraft. I think there’s a real risk that somebody might just blow the whistle and dump the whole lot into the public domain in a way that I don’t think any of us should want.”
This is why Coulthart believes now is the time for as much disclosure as possible. “I think the younger generations are more receptive. We’ve been told for years that it would be an unfair ontological shock to the American public and the world to reveal this information. That we’re all God-fearing Christians. And that this would offend in some way our religious beliefs or our whole ontological beliefs about our society. Frankly, I think that was probably the case in the 1950s and the 1960s.”
Why Today’s Audiences Are Ready
Times have changed, and Coulthart noted, “Even my Christian friends feel it’s time for the public to be told the truth. And that the notion of non-human beings being highly intelligent and highly advanced is not incompatible at all with religious beliefs.”
Coulthart has concluded, “We’re at a point now where it’s becoming simply untenable for this secrecy to be maintained. We don’t want the Russians or the Chinese stealing the march on us if there are technologies that can be developed for the advantage of all human beings. If there’s going to be one country that controls the release of that technology, I would want it to be a democracy like the United States. Not an authoritarian dictatorship like Russia or China. That’s the issue.”
As the world powers secretly race to reverse-engineer UAP technology, more world citizens are hungry for UAP information. What’s important to Coulthart is knowing exactly what audiences don’t want. “They don’t want the glib, unquestioning acceptance that you see on a lot of podcasts covering the subject matter.”
He affirmed, “They want to see people put on the back foot and questioned. And I think that’s why we’re making a difference. Because we’re a very journalistically rigorous show. We try to be objective and challenging when we do what we do.”
To journalists who are prepared to go against the grain, Coulthart suggests, “don’t be afraid of stepping away from the mainstream legacy media.” He added that it’s important to “do stories that you’re interested in.”
Passion Powers the Mission
When Coulthart left Australia’s 60 Minutes in 2018, he was already seeing “the decline in legacy media in advertising revenue and ratings.” He looked to see where that audience was going. That’s what led him to his NewsNation podcast and YouTube show, Reality Check.
The other essential part is passion. “Show your passion as a journalist for the subject that you care about and the audience will follow,” Coulthart attested. “I honestly feel so privileged as a journalist just to be following my curiosity. This all started out as me in an idle frippery going, ‘I think I’ll write a book about UFOs. Because I want to know more about it.'”
“Reality Check” is a top-50 podcast in the United States and regularly receives millions of views on YouTube. Coulthart believes these modern technology platforms are essential for good journalists. Because they “are far more nimble and far faster than the old-fashioned platforms. And this is where I think NewsNation deserves some credit. Because I think they’ve discovered that a digital audience through YouTube channels can be massive.”
The release of “Reality Check: Road to Disclosure” is paired with the release of Steven Spielberg’s film “Disclosure Day.” It features NewsNation anchor Jessica Kartalija. The director is also a believer and, like Coulthart, is hoping for more information on extraterrestrials to be released. Outside of the ones he’s created on the silver screen.
“Reality Check: Road to Disclosure” will be hosted by Ross Coulthart and air Saturday, June 13. It airs at 8 PM ET on NewsNation.
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
