It was already tough to fight disinformation. Then UFO news came along.

It’s even harder when long-held conspiratorial fodder veers into plausibility, as with UFOs. The information gatekeeper in this scenario, the U.S. government, is in a no-win situation. In the unlikely event we learn that UFOs are proof of alien life and that this knowledge was withheld from the public for generations, public trust would implode. If the government’s forthcoming report on the subject is stingy with details, it could birth a whole new set of theories. And if the report suggests there are simply objects in the sky we cannot explain, interested parties will suggest deception there, too — that the UFO phenomenon is really our terrestrial enemies’ covert surveillance and the government is using sci-fi intrigue to obfuscate. There’s a conspiracy behind every door, if you’re looking.

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