COMMENTARY: What we can learn from recent mainstream coverage

This weekend you may have seen a spike in coverage regarding the UFO phenomena. Mainstream outlets like the New York Times, which first "broke" the story, the Washington Post, MSNBC and others all have picked up on the Times expose that confirms what we've all known for years ; the Pentagon had a secret UFO program and the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Gimbal footage release, which is the first "official" video evidence released by the U.S. government.

Exclusive analysis brought to you by To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science. Gimbal is the first of three US military videos of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) that has been through the official declassification review process of the United States government and has been approved for public release.

Hey, maybe some of this Tom DeLonge hate wasn't warranted? Anyway, Luis Elizondo has been all over the news, as the story of an ex-Pentagon official who resigned from his post at the Department Of Defense UAP program to join DeLonge and co. has been everywhere.

There are two big takeways from the coverage of this:

1. The media has taken this story seriously.

2. The media is covering this story with all that is going on with the North Korea nuclear threat, the GOP tax scam bill, the ongoing Russia investigation, and the daily disaster that is the Donald Trump White House.

Here's something to understand how stories are covered and given time; if a story is "clicking" online, which means is getting heavy web traffic and social interactions, that means the story will be displayed prominently on the web, and hopefully more like-minded stories will follow. The New York Times piece was the organization's no. 1 story of the weekend with over 800 comments. This is good. More on how the media works, please check out the entire chapter on it in "Punk rock and UFOs: Cryptozoology Meets Anarchy."

OK, what about broadcast? Cable news and non-cable broadcast news is an industry dominated by ratings and what people are watching. What you see on most news broadcasts are dictated by ad revenue that is dictated by ratings, rather agenda driven ( Fox "News" being the exception). So for NBC or CNN to take the time out of its busy 24-hour news cycle of Washington wrongdoings and Trump's trainwrecks, this is another plus.

Since these stories have originated from Washington and are Pentagon-related and include prominent political players like Harry Reid, maybe that's why broadcast, print and online outlets have given this story the time and respect?

Sound off in the comments.

-By MIKE DAMANTE

NEWS