The Wall Street Journal Is Gaslighting You On UFOs

Summary

American Alchemy: The Wall Street Journal Is Gaslighting You On UFOs

Host: Jesse Michaels
Episode Release Date: June 13, 2025

In this provocative episode of American Alchemy, host Jesse Michaels delves deep into the contentious relationship between mainstream media and UFO discourse, particularly targeting a recent article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) titled "Pentagon Disinformation that Fueled America's UFO Mythology." Michaels challenges the WSJ's portrayal of UFO phenomena, arguing that the publication is perpetuating a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Pentagon.

---

Wall Street Journal's UFо Narrative

Michaels begins by critiquing the Wall Street Journal for what he perceives as “really, really stupid reporting” by mainstream media, citing past examples like the Saddam Hussein WMDs and the Hunter Biden laptop story. He zeroes in on the WSJ’s recent piece, which claims that UFO sightings, particularly those involving military installations, are the result of electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) or Air Force hazing rituals.

Jesse Michaels [00:00]: “The Wall Street Journal just released an article called the Pentagon Disinformation that Fueled America's UFO mythology. That truly Cake.”

---

The 1967 Malmstrom Air Force Base Incident

Central to Michaels' argument is the 1967 incident at Malmstrom Air Force Base, where First Lieutenant Robert Salas reported that all 10 nuclear missiles went offline during a UFO sighting.

Jesse Michaels [01:27]: “Salas even had a colleague present named Bob Jamison who backed up his testimony on record with Larry King.”

Michaels highlights the improbability of simultaneous missile malfunctions, emphasizing that such an event cannot be easily dismissed as a technical glitch.

Robert Salas [01:59]: “[...] All 10 missiles were off alert. All 10 whole flight was off alert, all red.”

Adding weight to the account, Bob Hastings, author of UFOs and Nukes, corroborates Salas' testimony, noting that malfunctioning all missiles simultaneously is “extremely rare”.

---

Debunking the EMP Theory

The WSJ attributes the missile shutdown to a secret EMP experiment, suggesting that the government tested the ability to disable its own nuclear arsenal without alerting personnel. Michaels vehemently disputes this, pointing out the lack of historical evidence supporting the existence or deployment of such EMPs in the 1960s.

Jesse Michaels [06:34]: “EMPs weren't even a thing until the '70s. No documents have ever suggested that the US has ever used them against our own active nuclear weapons with people in the vicinity.”

He further criticizes the WSJ's reliance on sources like Sean Kirkpatrick, describing the EMP explanation as “an insane claim” unworthy of mainstream media support.

---

Additional Witnesses and Persistent UFO Encounters

Michaels broadens the discussion by citing multiple accounts of UFO sightings and interactions with military bases:

• John Mills [04:17]: Describes a “huge spheroidal, elliptical” object near Malmstrom.
• Continuous sightings in places like Fukushima, Japan, and Bariloche, Argentina, where UFOs allegedly interfere with civilian and military operations.

These testimonies, Michaels argues, form a consistent pattern that the WSJ's disinformation narrative fails to adequately address or refute.

---

Suppression of UFO-Related Op-Eds

Highlighting potential censorship, Michaels narrates the story of an attempted Op-Ed publication in the WSJ by Carl Nell, an army representative of the UAP Task Force and founder of Army Futures Commander. Despite backing from high-profile individuals, the Op-Ed was inexplicably blocked from publication.

Jesse Michaels [11:26]: “I even met her in person at the Wall Street Journal headquarters. I told her about my own interest in the subject. [...] She was very nice and earnest and I have no reason to believe she cares about anything but the truth.”

This suppression, Michaels suggests, indicates a “hidden UFO program” or ulterior motives within the WSJ to maintain a skeptical stance on UFO disclosures.

---

The Role of David Spergel and NASA's UAP Working Group

Michaels introduces Dr. David Spergel, head of the Simons Foundation and chair of NASA's UAP Working Group, questioning his involvement and motives.

David Spergel [16:39]: “It just seems quite a curious set of coincidences.”

He insinuates that Spergel's position may be part of a broader strategy to dismiss UFO phenomena as mere “space trash,” aligning with historical debunkers like Don Menzel.

---

Calls to Action and Legal Repercussions

Frustrated by the perceived gaslighting, Michaels proposes a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government for hazing and harassment of UFO witnesses.

Jesse Michaels [11:26]: “Every UFO witness whose career has been significantly disrupted... should be granted millions of dollars for being hazed by our own government.”

He also advocates for the UAP Disclosure Act, urging listeners to support increased civilian oversight and transparency regarding UFO-related government activities.

---

Conclusion and Open Invitation for Debate

Michaels wraps up by challenging debunkers and members of the WSJ to engage in a civil discourse on the matter, expressing a willingness to host debates and discussions to foster “an open and honest Socratic debate.”

Jesse Michaels [16:03]: “I'm just anti bad, lazy, debunking. And if Joel Shechtman or Sean Kirkpatrick or Susan Goff or any of these people want to come on my show or debate me in any context and discuss any of this in a civil way, I'd be happy to host them.”

He emphasizes the need for better, fact-based analysis over what he deems as superficial or disingenuous debunking efforts.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Jesse Michaels [02:34]: “It would have been irresponsible and unthinkable for the US Air Force to jeopardize the operational status of these weapons.”
• Jesse Michaels [09:35]: “They faked UFOs, harassed these people.”
• Robert Salas [09:08]: “My officer efficiency reports are in there.”
• David Spergel [16:39]: “It just seems quite a curious set of coincidences.”

---

Final Thoughts

In this episode, American Alchemy presents a compelling critique of mainstream media's approach to UFO phenomena, particularly targeting the Wall Street Journal's recent narratives. Through a combination of historical incidents, witness testimonies, and investigative journalism, Jesse Michaels advocates for greater transparency and accountability, challenging listeners to question the established narratives and seek the truth behind the UFO disclosures.

Transcript

[Jesse Michaels]

When it comes to really, really stupid reporting by mainstream media publications, the well runs kind of deep. You've got the pangolin wet market theory around Covid's origins, the whole Saddam Hussein had WMDs thing, the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, calling Ivermectin horse dewormer when hundreds of millions of people take it a year. I could go on for many days, but the Wall Street Journal just released an article called the Pentagon Disinformation that Fueled America's UFO mythology. That truly Cake. I have to say I agree with aspects of the headline, the Pentagon is running a UFO Disinformation campaign. I think this article is part of that disinformation campaign. One of the article's primary sources is Susan Goff, whose own LinkedIn, along with independent sources, confirms her lead role in Booz Allen Hamilton's psychological operations consulting practice for the Department of Defense. Her self professed skills include strategic communication and psychological operations. In summary, this article says that UFOs are entirely explained by two things. Electromagnetic pulses or EMPs that the American government secretly decided to use on our own nuclear missiles and Air Force hazing rituals.

[Robert Salas]

All right, you little freshman bitches, let's.

[Jesse Michaels]

Tackle the first one.

[Bob Hastings]

Good afternoon, my name is Robert Salas.

[Jesse Michaels]

On March 24, 1967, Robert Salas, a first lieutenant stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base, said he received a call from topside guards saying that they had seen strange lights in the sky making odd maneuvers. The men are stationed in the missile launch bunker 60ft below ground.

[Bob Hastings]

He called back about five minutes later. This time he was screaming into the phone saying they're looking at an object, a red glowing object hovering just above our front gate. All 10 missiles were off alert. All 10 whole flight was off alert, all red.

[Jesse Michaels]

Salas even had a colleague present named Bob Jamison who backed up his testimony on record with Larry King. Is it possible they just malfunctioned?

[Bob Hastings]

That doesn't happen. Very rarely does a missile malfunction. Much more rare would be 2 at the same time, but never 10.

[Jesse Michaels]

In fact, the guy who most thoroughly documents the malmstrom case in 1967 is the author of the great book UFOs and Nukes. His name is Robert Hastings and he is the Authoritative chronicler of 167Q. Cleared nuclear base employees that have all witnessed UFOs.

[Robert Salas]

Declassified US government documents and witness testimony from former or retired US military personnel confirm beyond any doubt the reality of ongoing UFO incursions at nuclear weapons sites.

[Jesse Michaels]

In many cases, these UFOs have tampered with various nuclear sites across the country. Strangely enough, Bob Hastings figured out the connection between UFOs and nuclear weapons because his father was stationed at Malmstrom nuclear base in 1967. In high school, Hastings worked as a janitor there. And a radar operator who took young Hastings under his wing called the 16 year old over to show him that the base was actually tracking what they called unknowns at the time.

[Robert Salas]

That's the formal term for unidentified objects. I saw five blips in the sort of northeast quadrant of his radar scope.

[Jesse Michaels]

A local truck driver in Montana and police officer are also on record having seen the UFO in the area. In 1993, a missile technician named John Mills stationed at Malmstrom also saw UFOs on his way back to the base. When he returned, officers there said the base had been swarmed. There are tons of sightings in and around Malmstrom on the UFO thing.

[John Mills]

I was working for the Forest Service not too far from Malmstrom Air Force Base. One day I was up there in a Forest Service pickup truck at a certain campground. And I was there and suddenly I look up and I say, suddenly. It was just in the skats. I became aware that it was up there and I looked up. It was this huge spheroidal, you know, but elliptical. Not a perfect spheroid like a saucer that was turned partially on its side.

[Jesse Michaels]

These occur to this day. So anyways, this Wall Street Journal reporter named Joel Shechtman writes that this was all a secret emp, or electromagnetic pulse experiment, seeing if the US could shut down our own nukes with people present. As if that's not incredibly dangerous and reckless and has any precedent. I think that Schectman or one of his sources is making this up. There's even documentation from Malmstrom's Strategic Air Command itself saying that they were extremely puzzled around the event and that they had no idea what was going on. They were so puzzled that they paid Boeing to come out and investigate what had happened. Boeing was also puzzled. So again, back to this idea that this was a super secret EMP that no one knew about and it was an EMP tested on our own nuclear weapons with people present. Bob Salas responded to this claim, quote, unquote. It would have been irresponsible and unthinkable for, for the US Air Force to jeopardize the operational status of these weapons. The EMP generator equipment would have involved a prolonged installation process in plain sight of our security team. Again, this is the same security team that expressed Extreme fear to Robert Salas due to the fact that a glowing red object was hovering around the base and making right angle turns. For whatever reason, none of this testimony made it into this article. But perhaps most damningly, I mean, the real nail in the coffin for this is that EMPs weren't even a thing until the 70s. And no documents have ever suggested that the US has ever used them against our own active nuclear weapons with people in the vicinity. As my friend and journalist Marek von Rennenkampf eloquently points out. As Merrick tweeted, the Wall Street Journal is suggesting that technicians somehow moved a 60 foot science experiment up to the front gate of an alert missile facility undetected. And then they fried the active nukes. This is a joke, right? And then you have the fact that EMPs don't usually do reversible damage. They take out all electronics in their vicinity. These missiles came back online. Maybe you could argue that EMPs can at times cause temporary downtime, but we definitely didn't have the ability to use EMPs this precisely before they were even operational. That's an insane claim that I don't even think the Wall Street Journal would pretend to defend. There are literally no logs or records anywhere from Malmstrom or any employees of that base saying these missiles didn't come back online. So they didn't just take out 10 missiles with an EMP and then turn them back on. That's extremely basic physics that Sean Kirkpatrick, a supposed physicist and the head of aaro, the All Domain Anomalies Resolution Office, who clearly spoon fed all of this bad information to Joel Shechtman, a man who needs to up his fact checking game, should know. Get up, you lazy little bitches. Get up. You hurt her. Okay. And then you have this second claim that the article makes that Air Force hazing rituals explain widespread UFO mythology. Can someone please, for the love of God, explain documents from the Air Force dating back to 1949 discussing an emergency meeting around UFOs and nukes taking place at killing base camps with the army cic, FBI, Office of Naval Intelligence and CIA present this FBI document discussing the same UFO and nuclear connection. Or in 1947, General Nathan Twining, responsible for all aircraft development in the Air Force at the time, saying that UFOs are not visionary or fictitious. Tell me how debunking one nuclear UFO related case in 1967, explains a town in Japan next to their nuclear civilian grid in Fukushima, where the residents have frequent sightings and are obsessed with UFOs or at Bariloche, Argentina, next to their civilian grid where a commercial pilot in 1995 literally couldn't land the plane due to an outage and a UFO chasing his plane. What about Bob Jacobs sighting in 1964 at Vandenberg, where he was removed as a government employee despite having managed over 130 people. They denied that he ever worked there until later his superior, Major Mansman admitted that he did work there a couple decades later.

[Bob Hastings]

My officer efficiency reports are in there.

[Jesse Michaels]

By the way, I've seen Bob Jacobs DD214, he definitely worked at Vandenberg. So Jacobs and all these other nuclear base employees, Mario woods, all of these people that I've interviewed have been hazed for 70 years by our own government. For what? They faked UFOs, harassed these people. In Jacob's case, they blew up his mailbox and fucked with him endlessly.

[Robert Salas]

He gets a phone call one night, he and his wife. The voice says, your mailbox alight. What a beautiful sight. You're going down, motherfucker.

[Jesse Michaels]

You know how we're always diving into.

[Susan Ettlinger]

The edge of science and consciousness on this show? Lately I've been thinking a lot about aging. Not just in terms of years, but in how it actually feels in the body. Slow recovery, lower energy, that middle aged fog that sneaks up on you. I feel like I can barely go out and drink alcohol anymore. That's why I started using something called Qualia Senolytic and it's been a major shift for me. Let me explain. As we age, our bodies accumulate what scientists call senescent cells, also known as zombie cells. These are worn out cells that stop dividing but don't die. They hang around in your body, draining your energy, clogging up your recovery and generally making you feel older than you are. Qualia Senolytic is a first of its kind supplement formulated with nine plant based compounds designed to help your body naturally eliminate these zombie cells. It's not something you take every day, just two days a month, but it supports your body in aging better at the cellular level. Since I've started taking it, I've felt sharper, lighter and like my body's resilience has come back online. It's vegan, non GMO and grounded in serious research. Experience the of feeling younger. Go to qualiolife.com Jesse for up to 50% off your purchase and use code Jesse again that's J E S S E for an additional 15% off that's Q U A L I A l I f e.com Jesse J-E-S S for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks so much to Qualia for sponsoring this episode.

[Jesse Michaels]

This is all sort of beautiful though. The Wall Street Journal has really backed themselves into a corner. I suggest they either prove the existence of these hazing programs in a follow up article because extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, or at the very least they support what I'm about to propose a class action lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims act. Every UFO witness whose career has been significantly disrupted for their speaking out about this issue or mental health has been disrupted by optical illusions in the sky or whatever hazing rituals this article is proposing should be granted millions of dollars for being hazed by our own government. David Grusch, who experienced serious reprisals while in government and was dragged through the mud at the National Geospatial Agency, should receive a large check in the mail. Surely we should have some church committee style hearings about these egregious acts committed by our own government, and I'm certain Joel Shechtman and everybody else involved in the writing of this article would support that. I'm not so sure they would see Perhaps this personal story is most telling and indicative of where the Wall Street Journal is really coming from. Last year, my friend Carl Nell, army representative of the UAP Task Force and founder of Army Futures Commander who helped spearhead many of the Army's most important tech modernization efforts, wrote an op ed intended for the Wall Street Journal. The opinion piece was co authored by a former Cabinet member. You heard me right, like Presidential Cabinet member. The essay expressed a deep frustration at the lack of transparency and civilian oversight with UFO related programs in government. Again, a Cabinet member co authored this. And lest you think I'm making this up, I'm not the only person aware of this article besides Nel. Senate Intelligence committee staffer Kirk McConnell, whose politics I don't always agree with, is also fully clued in about this opinion piece, and we also have emails between Carnell and the Wall Street Journal about it. It is a fact that this article was written and it was proposed for publication, but the Op Ed section refused to publish this article for no apparent reason. Serendipitously, I had just met a very friendly Vice President at News Corp. Which owns the Wall Street Journal. So I offered to help advocate for the publication of this op ed by getting an introduction to one of the managing editors of the Wall Street Journal's Opinion section. This woman was named Lena Bell. She was very nice and earnest and I have no reason to believe she cares about anything but the truth. We had a great exchange. I even met her in person at the Wall Street Journal headquarters. I told her about my own interest in the subject. I suggested that it would be great if more mainstream, credentialed journalists were interested. I even said that she should read UFOs and nukes by Robert Hastings if she wanted to learn more about the government's history with UFOs.

[Matthew]

The PC gave us computing power at home, the Internet connected us, and mobile let us do it pretty much anywhere. Now, generative AI lets us communicate with technology in our own language, using our own senses. But figuring it all out when you're living through it is a totally different story. Welcome to Leading the Shift, a new podcast for Microsoft Azure. I'm your host, Susan Ettlinger. In each episode, leaders will share what they're learning to help you navigate all this change with confidence. Please join us, listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts followed up.

[Jesse Michaels]

But it seemed like she was powerless in helping getting this opinion piece published. There was some undetectable dark matter at play stopping this opinion piece from getting published. Just think about it. Even if you can't fully verify that there's a hidden UFO program, obviously that's a tall order. Shouldn't a former Cabinet member saying anything about unidentified flying objects immediately be worthy of publication, even if you then run a story saying that that former cabinet member is crazy? When I politely expressed my confusion around this, I was told something very telling. Lena told me that a guy named David Spergel is their de Facto advisor on UFOs, and he says that UFOs are all space trash. Light reflections and temperature inversions. This is almost exactly what past UFO debunkers like Don Menzel would say in the 50s.

[Bob Hastings]

First of all, the objects are not unidentified. We know what they are.

[Jesse Michaels]

Menzel happened to hold extremely high clearances at the nsa, CIA, and Navy. He was also caught destroying astronomical records by fellow astronomer Dorit Hoflite, as she documents in her biography.

[Dorit Hoflite]

In 1953, Donald Menzel also stopped the astronomers at Harvard to carry out their very famous sky survey, where they were monitoring the entire sky. He also had, apparently some more later episodes of plate destruction, I've heard.

[Jesse Michaels]

But I digress. Who is this David Spergel?

[David Spergel]

The head of the Simons Foundation. This guy named Dr. David Spergel. He was tapped to be the chair of the NASA UAP working group.

[Jesse Michaels]

Yeah, a working group that sort of says, you know, nothing to see here. Like, we will keep an open mind, but there's probably nothing here Which I find interesting.

[David Spergel]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I have no smoking gun. It just seems quite a curious set of coincidences. And you look at what else Jim Simons was really engaged in, right? He said at the Simons foundation, which is probably like one of the leading private sector sources of philanthropic funding for fundamental science research. And his, you know, guy running his, his private research foundation and fundamental physics gets tapped to run the UAP working group for NASA.

[Jesse Michaels]

Yeah. Weinstein is on Rogan actively speculating that this is housing a sort of secret physics program involving all the top differential geometers in the U.S. what do you think, Matthew?

[David Spergel]

I mean, if such a thing were to exist, that's exactly where it would exist.

[Jesse Michaels]

Yeah. And who knows? Maybe Spergel has nothing to do with UFOs. Maybe the wall Street Journal genuinely believes the bullshit about EMPs they're promoting. But it's just so weird to me that they've been working on a UFO related story for months and neglected to mention that a cabinet member was involved in a UFO related op ed proposal that they received last year. So, bad faith, acting, incompetence. I'll let you decide. I'll just end on this note. If UFOs are all just some fake multi decade long hazing ritual, then nobody should have any issue with the impending UAP Disclosure Act. Who cares if we have civilian oversight over programs that don't exist? And hopefully when the UAP Disclosure act goes up for vote again, Sean Kirkpatrick won't lobby against it like he did last time. So on that note, I'm linking a petition below that you will hopefully all sign in support of the UAP Disclosure Act. This will ensure civilian congressional oversight over UFOs and elect an elite presidential board to help push disclosure. This Wall Street Journal article is truly so bad that I am almost inclined to believe it is a pro UFO conspiracy. So please Wall Street Journal, do better next time. We need better debunkers. I'm not anti debunking. There's plenty of bullshit in UFO world, a lot of which I cover. I'm just anti bad, lazy, debunking. And if Joel Shechtman or Sean Kirkpatrick or Susan Goff or any of these people want to come on my show or debate me in any context and discuss any of this in a civil way, I'd be happy to host them. Surely it would help promote this article. And if the article's contents are true, they can back all this stuff up. I suspect I won't hear back about that invitation. And that's probably the most frustrating thing about these people. They only hit you with these cheap shots from afar. They never actually show up and meet you face to face. So, again, open invite. I've also messaged Lena Bell expressing a desire to write an op ed rebuttal in the Wall Street Journal. If she says yes, I'll let Robert Hastings, Carl Nell, David Grusch, Marek von Rennenkamp, Michael Shellenberger, and anyone else contribute and co author this paper with me. Because surely the Wall Street Journal wants that in the name of having an open and honest Socratic debate. Until next time, for hopefully a more aspirational and positive episode. I'm Jesse Michaels, and this is American Alchemy.