Science journalist Sarah Scoles credited the December 2017 New York Times report on Pentagon UFO", covering any airborne object that cannot be immediately identified.">UAP research with legitimizing the subject for mainstream news organizations during a May 2024 appearance on Open Minds UAP News.
That story gave newsrooms permission to treat this as a real beat
, Scoles told host Alejandro Rojas.Scoles, a Wired contributor and author of the 2020 book They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, discussed coverage challenges during the tenure of former All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office director Sean Kirkpatrick, who led the Pentagon unit from July 2022 through December 2023.
She noted the persistent difficulty of distinguishing genuinely unexplained cases from those later attributed to conventional aircraft or atmospheric phenomena, citing sighting data compiled by analytics firm Enigma Labs.