9/11 @ 20 Years
Remembering the 9/11 Emmys — a lesson in crisis management from a show that was postponed twice — once over 9/11 and once over the invasion of Afghanistan. Were they a dress rehearsal for our increasingly chaotic world?
Since the Emmy Awards came into existence in 1949, they had never been postponed or canceled until 2001. In that year of 9/11, it happened twice — on my watch. That year, the Emmys faced an existential threat when 9/11 occurred five days before a scheduled telecast.
I was elected Chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in August 2001, naively thinking that being the first writer since Rod Serling to hold that post might be what distinguished my term in office. Then, just a month later, 9/11 hit. …
Guest Column
Whether it’s the lab-leak theory of COVID’s origin or the evidence for anomalous objects near Earth, those who insist uncomfortable ideas are unscientific are holding back potentially important discoveries.
Cosmic Collision
40 years ago, after doing a ‘live’ half-hour show with Carl Sagan about Voyager II’s Saturn flyby, we debated UFO reality in a PBS parking lot. It was a close encounter I’ll never forget.
Okay, on one level, I get it. Dr. Carl Sagan was a very cool guy. He was a renowned astronomer and astrophysicist, popular around the entire planet. He appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was practically a regular. That show taped in Burbank in the late afternoon which afforded him the chance to watch himself at 11:30 at night on tape delay and maybe smoke a bowl or two while doing it.
That’s right, we now know that Sagan had a thing about marijuana. He was a lifetime user, thought it enhanced his work, and advocated weed’s…
Getting There from Here
Here’s another way to look at how the truth about UAP reality rolls out to the public. What’s next could go fast or slow but the path is clear.
What exactly is a phase, anyway? The dictionary says it means “a distinguishable part in a course, development, or cycle.” The Moon famously goes through phases. So do teenagers, according to most parents. Marvel Comics runs its cinematic universe in phases.
Can the same be said for the disclosure process for coming to grips with the truth about UFO/UAP reality? The answer seems to be yes, and the key phases are coming into focus.
It looks like there are Four Phases (in America, anyway) that must be gone through until we get to the point of an actual Disclosure that…
Journalism and Media
It’s only 92 words long, but contains two fact errors. On the 60th anniversary of the Hill UFO abduction, it’s time to set the record straight.
If you happen to take a vacation to New Hampshire and end up driving through the White Mountains on Route 3, you may come across this historical marker in Lincoln, near the northern end of the area’s quaint Indian Head Resort. It commemorates the famous alien abduction case of Betty and Barney Hill that allegedly took place nearby. The sign itself has become a tourist destination, and this is what it says:
Betty and Barney Hill Incident.
On the night of September 19–20, 1961, Portsmouth, NH couple Betty and Barney Hill experienced a close encounter with an unidentified flying object…
Nothing to Lose?
The world’s problems — pandemic, climate change, nuclear weapons, extremism, racism, war — are desperate and intractable. Disclosure of UAP reality could show us that we are more alike than different.
Is it time for the ultimate Hail Mary? Is it time to just get the inevitable UFO/UAP reality, big “D” Disclosure over with, once and for all? How bad do things really have to get before we realize that we have nothing to lose by just coming out and saying it?
We are not alone. We have company — non-human company — right here on Planet Earth. Now let’s get to work.
See? That wasn’t so hard.
The Three Big Problems We Are Not Solving
On the Medium site, writer umair haque has turned cataloguing the dire state of the world into something of a cottage industry. He’s…
Saucer Talk (August 2021)
Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart has been all over the UAP media promoting his new book. We’ve had a read and have opinions.
Trail of the Saucers editors Bryce Zabel and David Bates read Ross Coulthart’s new book faster than a speeding Tic Tac (not quite, but it’s a metaphor), and are ready to dish on it now in our monthly feature, “Saucer Talk.”
Bryce: First off, to catch everyone up, Ross Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist, but that doesn’t really do justice to what it means that he’s spent the last two years digging into the issue of UAP reality. He’s a big deal Down Under, having won all the top journalism awards they give out there — they have names…
Culture Watch
Peloton’s most popular instructor is having a Zeitgeist moment. What does it say about him and about us?
The sassy and brassy Peloton instructor extraordinaire Cody Rigsby is having the ride of his life (and not just in spin class). Literally, in just the last week, he was featured in The Washington Post, The Evening Standard, and Insider. He has endorsement deals with Adidas, Therabody and GM. The Cult of Cody is in full motion. Who doesn’t love this guy?
“[I decided] to be myself, to be authentic, to lean into the things that I’m good at… People are really resonating with what I’m putting out there.”
Ten Things about Cody
I’ve been spinning with Cody Rigsby since my Peloton bike showed…
A Trail of the Saucers Investigation
On the 60th anniversary of the Hill UFO abduction, it’s time to set the record straight about how the story first received global attention in 1965 based on the journalism of John Luttrell Sr.
We all know how the Betty and Barney Hill abduction story became public, right? It was the subject of a 1966 book, The Interrupted Journey, by author John Fuller. It became a best-seller after being excerpted in two issues of Look magazine published in October of that year. That book was adapted to a TV movie in 1975, The UFO Incident, starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.
It’s a nice narrative, widely repeated in streaming documentaries, cable episodes, blog posts, and UFO books. It is accepted as fact.
The problem with that version is that it erases the history…
Twenty Years Ago
As today’s Emmys struggle with the coronavirus for a second year, former TV Academy chairman Bryce Zabel looks back at the 2001 Emmys that were canceled twice. Must the show go on?
Since the Emmy Awards came into existence in 1949, they had never been postponed or canceled until 2001. In that year of 9/11, it happened twice — on my watch. That year, the Emmys faced an existential threat when 9/11 occurred five days before a scheduled telecast.
I was elected Chairman/CEO of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in August 2001, naively thinking that being the first writer since Rod Serling to hold that post might be what distinguished my term in office. Then, just a month later, 9/11 hit. …
