Anderson Cooper’s ‘360’ circles around UFOs

We don’t see many programs on UFOs in the mainstream media. But since Anderson Cooper’s ‘360’ featured a half-hour segment in late April,  it’s worth analyzing what he presented. The segment was called “Do you Believe in Space Aliens?”

I guess the term ‘space aliens’ was used to distinguish the subject from border-crossing aliens. That’s understandable, but the term also limits the possibility of where UFOs and their alien crew are coming from. Sure, (outer) space is a possibility. But maybe they are inter-dimensional, maybe they are us coming the future. Who knows, maybe they’re from the past, a destroyed high tech culture, ie. Atlantis, that developed time travel. Maybe there is no one answer about who they are or where they are from.

Anderson Cooper’s story on April 24 focused on UFO sightings from 2008 that were witnessed outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County. Anderson invited an eyewitness who explained how she was awakened by her growling dog to discover glowing lights above her house. It was shortly followed by a sprinkling of metallic-like glitter on her tree, making her think “it was snowing in July.” Apparently, she feared being ridiculed later on so she only used her first name, Denise. Actually, the ridicule would begin within minutes while she was on national television.

But first  Cooper introduced Pennsylvania state Mutual UFO Network director John Ventre to talk about what happened to the tree.

Ventre said MUFON sent leaves from the affected tree to two different labs, both of which reported “high levels of magnesium and boron,” two to three times higher than controlled samples detected on neighboring trees. Furthermore, the leaves had produced anthocyanin, which Ventre accurately described as a plant’s natural defense from heat and radiation. But were those levels of anthocyanin excessive or unnatural? And what gives with the elevated magnesium and boron?

As one Internet critic noted: “This is the part where you bring in one of the lab analysts, right? Or a botanist, maybe?” Time to dig deeper into the physical evidence, right? Nope.

Instead, Cooper brings in a couple of abductees, who have nothing to do with the Pennsylvania story, then debunker John Nickell, who dismisses Denise as a misguided person who saw Jupiter shining in her bedroom window.

“So Jupiter dumped stuff on my tree,” Denise wondered, “is that what you’re saying?”

No, Nickell countered, “I expect the stuff on your tree was, probably, you saw some sand or something in the light.”

Right. But there were still a few minutes left, time to find out more about the hard evidence, the boron or the magnesium or the anthocyanin.  But, no, AC brings on a psychic to talk about star families.

Oh, well. Nice try. But the bottom line was–as usual with this subject in the mainstream media–keep it light and entertaining. Don’t get too serious.

All that said, I want to introduce readers to a blogger from the mainstream media, logging on the site of a daily newspaper, about UFOs. It was that log, called De Void, where I first learned about Anderson Cooper’s UFO report. De Void is a web log from the Herald Tribune of Sarasota, Florida, and is written by Billy Cox. I love the sub-title of De Void:  The Mainstream Media’s Lonely UFO Web Log.

Good going, Billy.