The Daily Telegraph, UFOs and the appeal to authority

That august newspaper of record The Daily Telegraph is enthusiastically and uncritically reporting Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s claims that aliens have visited Earth on several occasions, and that teh government has been covering it up for 60 years.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’He said supposedly real-life ET’s were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is “not nearly as sophisticated” as theirs and “had they been hostile”, he warned “we would be been gone by now”.

Mitchell presents no evidence in support of his claims beyond his own personal testimony, but then again, he does hold “a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics,” and he does “hold the record for the longest ever moon walk.”

Moreover, the Telegraph “can present the video evidence supporting his claim“, as well as poll results indicating that “an overwhelming 74% of respondents” back him. Ergo, “ALIENS REALLY ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

(This is not to completely discount the possibility that extraterrestrials have visited the Earth, nor even that such encounters have been the subject of government cover-ups. But we do need a tad bit more to go on than anecdotes, opinion polls and YouTubes.)