George Knapp Says Public Has Been Misled About UFOs For Nearly 80 Years

Investigative journalist George Knapp has claimed that the public has been deliberately misled about UFOs for almost 80 years, accusing elements within the US government of spreading lies, propaganda, and ridicule to suppress the truth. Speaking on Cuomo on NewsNation, Knapp appeared alongside filmmaker Jeremy Corbell and host Chris Cuomo to discuss the long-running secrecy surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).

Knapp, who helped bring Area 51 into the public eye in the late 1980s, said that although progress has been made in recent years - particularly since the landmark 2017 New York Times article on secret Pentagon UFO research - those in control of the information are still working hard to keep the truth out of reach.

"We have made progress since that New York Times story in 2017," Knapp said. "Congress is showing it's interested in the topic after being hands off for more than 50 years." He pointed out that even the academic community has begun to engage with the subject more seriously, something that would have been unheard of a decade ago.

But he warned that "the keepers of the secrets... the folks who have manipulated this topic for almost 80 years now are better at their job than we are," adding, "They have a lot of tools at their disposal. We've seen some of it come out in the last couple of days in national media accounts that muddy the waters."

Knapp said recent news reports have confirmed long-standing suspicions that the public, Congress, and even military personnel have all been misled. "They've admitted what we've all known for a long time - that they've lied to the American public, that they've lied to Congress... and to their own military personnel. They made up stories, propaganda. It's disgraceful."

Watch Chris Cuomo's full interview with George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell below.

Jeremy Corbell, known for releasing leaked military footage of UAPs, echoed Knapp's concerns and said the lack of transparency isn't just about protecting national security - it's about intentionally confusing the issue. "They are intentionally muddying the waters with misinformation and disinformation," he said.

Corbell pointed to recent media coverage as an example, calling it "ridiculous and sinister," and added: "The new conspiracy is that UFOs aren't real. That's the latest cover-up."

When asked who is actually responsible for keeping these secrets, Knapp said it's a small group made up of Department of Defense officials, intelligence agencies, and defence contractors. But even they may not know the full story. "I have never met anyone who really knows the true story," he admitted. "I've run into a lot of people whose job it is to confuse the public... to slip out propaganda."

Knapp said his interest in the topic came not from a belief in aliens, but from what was documented behind closed doors. Referring to internal government reports and memos from before the Freedom of Information Act, he said, "In those reports, it shows they were saying, 'Hey, this is real. It's not imaginary. It's not fictitious. It's real. It's from somewhere else.'"

He also referenced the 1953 CIA-led Robertson Panel, which concluded that UFOs weren't a direct threat to national security - but public belief in them might be. Their recommendation? Use ridicule and debunking to strip the subject of credibility. "That's pretty much been the policy of the US government ever since," Knapp said.

Chris Cuomo asked why, even with changes in US presidential administrations, nothing significant seems to move forward. Corbell responded bluntly: "True transparency on this topic is going to come through good journalism... I'm not going to rely on anybody else to move this ball forward. I just think the public needs to fight for it."

Knapp agreed that Congress, despite some progress, is still being manipulated: "There's always something more pressing," he said. "So the people who tell these lies get away with it."

As for what it might take to truly crack the issue open, Knapp said it would either be a whistleblower coming forward with irrefutable physical evidence - or the phenomenon itself becoming undeniably public. "They started the secrecy, and our government is happy to exploit it," he said.

Cuomo ended by speculating that real change might come not from truth, but from political gain. "One of these two poisoned parties is going to realise there's something in this issue for them... and they'll go all-in."

Until then, as Corbell put it, "If we still have freedom of journalism, then we're going to push as hard as we can to reveal to people the best evidence that we have. That's our mission. That's what we're going to do."