Edward Murrow on UFOs

Being skeptical of authority, it's no surprise that legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow didn't accept the government line on UFOs and took on the issue in a radio documentary that you can download here. From the show notes:

But Murrow’s gravitas helped validate as a mainstream issue what were then known as flying saucers. Not surprisingly, he played it straight, plumbing skeptics, witnesses like Kenneth Arnold, and official sources alike. Although he drew no conclusions, Murrow was clearly suspicious of military kiss-offs, grousing that “The figures just don’t add up.”

He reminded Americans that while the USAF’s Project Saucer came up empty-handed 1949, bear in mind “the stubbornness of the saucers to accept the mantle of oblivion.” Murrow quoted critics who theorized the flying discs were merely classified American programs. Then he’d come back with a Charles Zimmerman, designer of the most exotic XF5U1 “flying pancake,” who countered that “this aircraft never flew.”

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