| Philip J. Klass |
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Philip Julian Klass ( November 8 1919 – August 9 2005 ) was born in Des Moines, Iowa and died in Merritt Island, Florida . He was an electrical engineer by training, and also a journalist, but he is probably best known as a leading debunker of UFO s, arguing especially against the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis . In the Ufological and skeptical communities, Klass tends to inspire strongly polarized appraisals. Klass has been called the " Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy" by supporters. And in a 1999 interview, fellow debunker Gary Posner wrote that despite some recent health problems, the 80 year-old "Klass's mind -- and pen -- remain razor sharp, to the delight of his grateful followers and to the constant vexation (or worse) of his legions of detractors." {Link without Title} However, Klass' critics have accused him of Pathological Skepticism , and of using Pseudoscience explanations and unfair Propaganda techniques to advance his anti-UFO arguments. He has also been accused of being vindictive and resorting to Character Assassination and other " Dirty Tricks " against UFO witnesses, opposing UFO researchers, and even some fellow skeptics critical of him. A notable example were his attacks on atmospheric physicist Dr. James E. McDonald after McDonald had demolished Klass' Ball Lightning theory for UFOs as scientifically invalid. ( Detailed Below ) BIOGRAPHY Klass graduated from Iowa State University in 1941, with a BS in Electrical Engineering . He worked for General Electric for ten years as an engineer in aviation electronics. In 1952 he joined ''Aviation Week'', which later became '' Aviation Week & Space Technology ''. He was a senior editor of ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'' for thirty-four years. In 1973 Klass was named a fellow of the Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers , recognized for his technical writing. He was also a member of the American Association For The Advancement Of Science , the Aviation/Space Writers Association , the National Press Club , and the National Aviation Club . Asteroid 7277 (1983 RM2) was named "Klass" after him. Retiring in 1986 as senior avionics editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology , he continued to contribute to the magazine for several more years. His book, "Secret Sentries in Space" (1971), was one of the first books about spy satellite technology. He is credited with coining the term " Avionics ," a blending of aviation and electronics. UFO RESEARCHER AND SKEPTIC Klass was a founding fellow of the Committee For The Scientific Investigation Of Claims Of The Paranormal (CSICOP). He is best known for his Skeptical investigations of reports of UFOs. He published the bimonthly ''Skeptics UFO Newsletter'' for several years and wrote several books on the subject (see below). In his first book, ''UFO's: Identified'', Klass argued that UFO reports were best explained as a previously unknown type of Ball Lightning . Though initially speculative and provisional, Klass thought that Plasma was consistent with many UFO reports: bright lights moving erratically. A highly charged plasma might further explain the reported effects of UFOs on the electrical systems of airplanes and automobiles. CRITICISM OF KLASS Klass's plasma conclusion met with considerable incredulity, even from some pronounced UFO skeptics; Klass was essentially invoking one mystery to explain another. Even the ". Atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald offered a detailed rebuttal of Klass' Plasma hypothesis. In part, McDonald wrote:
Klass and McDonald engaged in an often savagely adversarial relationship. Tom McIver (a self-described "fellow skeptic") wrote that shortly after McDonald criticized Klass's plasma theory, "Klass accused McDonald of misusing public funds, resulting in a traumatic government investigation and audit (in which he was cleared, though he committed suicide not long afterwards)." McIver article, External links According to Jerome Clark (a UFO researcher and vice president of the Center For UFO Studies ), "Klass's campaign continued in one form or another for some 18 months, though after an audit of his work ONR noted that it was aware of McDonald's UFO work and no objections to it. Nonetheless, McDonald lost ONR support for future contracts, apparently because ONR feared that Klass would write an article on the episode for the powerful '' Aviation Week ''." (Clark, 370) Another example of an attack on a well-known Ufologists was detailed in a 1975 FBI memo. Klass called the Editor of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin to complain about an article by Dr. J. Allen Hynek that appeared in the February, 1975 issue. According to the memo, Klass "derided" the decision to publish the article and called Hynek a "fraud". The memo said they responded to Klass with a positive assessment of Hynek: "All of his writings and public statements that were examined prior to the publication of his article in the Bulletin disclose a meticulously objective and scientific view of the UFO phenomenon." When Klass was informed of the FBI’s positive view, especially that he was affiliated with a leading university (Northwestern), the memo says that Klass replied, "He won’t be for long!" The memo concluded with a negative assessment of Klass: "In view of Klass’s intemperate criticism and often irrational statements he made to support it, we should be most circumspect in any future contacts with him." External links Klass has often been accused of using unfair, baseless " Dirty Tricks " in efforts to discredit UFO researchers with whom he disagrees. For example, Jerome Clark writes:
Similarly Tom McIver writes that many of Klass's opponents:
About Klass' tactics, McIver commented:
McIver also wrote about Klass' personal attacks on him, after McIver had compiled evidence of financial fraud against a fellow CSICOP's member:
McIver added that Klass put out a lengthy series of flyers labeled the "McIver Forked Tongue" series. {Link without Title} Another example of such smear tactics has recently come to light, in a letter found by historian Rich Dolan in the Canadian national archives. When Klass discovered that UFO researcher Stanton T. Friedman , a former nuclear physicist, was emigrating to Canada with his family, Klass in 1980 wrote a letter to the Canadian National Research Council , who were supposed to investigate Canadian UFO reports. The letter disparaged Friedman’s professional credentials as a nuclear physicist, twice said he had a "mountainous ego," called him "something of an outcast" within the UFO "movement," and that he was a "full-time UFO lecturer (of the 'snake-oil salesman' variety)" whose lectures were "filled with half-truths and falsehoods." Klass requested his letter be secrety distributed to other Research Council members and kept concealed from Friedman. letter In 1983, Klass suggested that, as Clark writes, "that asset", perhaps following the Robertson Panel 's directives to Debunk UFOs.) However, Klass's defenders have questioned Clark's objectivity in assessing Klass, beyond their normal differences of opinion regarding UFOs. The men have butted heads on several occasions; in 1984, a series of friendly letters turned sour when Clark thought that one of Klass's jokes was a "death threat". Clark has also been accused of ignoring Klass's explanation on at least one occasion despite the fact that it was endorsed by the participants in the UFO case. Peter Brooksmith writes: "I've long found it interesting too that in his treatment of the RB-47 case in his UFO 'Encyclopedia', which is so admirable in so many other ways, Jerome dismisses Klass's interpretation of the data as a series of unlikely coincidences. But he doesn't mention that Klass presented that interpretation to the RB-47 crew, who agreed that the 'UFOs' were the product of human error & excitement combined with ghost echoes on the radar. This is a key item in Klass's analysis. Surely it was not just dislike for the man that led Jerome to omit it?" {Link without Title} ) Critics, however, point out that Klass's explanation for the RB-47 case was thoroughly demolished by researcher Brad Sparks, who found, among other things, that Klass had the RB-47 plane sometimes moving at impossible Supersonic speeds in order to get portions of his explanation to work. Sparks also disproved the keystone of Klass's thesis, that the RB-47 Microwave sensors were miscalibrated because of equipment malfunction. Thus, it is argued, it doesn't really matter if the participants endorsed Klass's explanation or not, since it was bogus. Questioning the accuracy of the above claims by critics about Klass's character, defenders like to point to instances where Klass behaved in a civil, reasonable manner when debating UFO research. An example given was a 1976 letter to Gordon Thayer (a Condon Report investigator), Klass wrote of his and Thayer's disagreements "there are several more basic issues. For these, I want to give you the maximum possible time to do your 'homework' to dig out the strongest possible supportive evidence for your viewpoint. Thus I shall raise them now to provide you at least three months time to find/locate supportive evidence (if same can be found)." {Link without Title} Ufologist William Moore "eulogized" Klass this way: {Link without Title} The world is better off without him. My sainted grandmother told me not to say anything about the dead unless I could say something good. He's dead. Good. THE UFO CURSE
This was originally published in ''Saucer Smear'', October 10, 1983 (Moseley and Pflock 2002:323-24). QUOTE ABOUT KLASS
SEE ALSO BOOKS AND ARTICLES Books:
Articles:
Note - reprinted in ''The UFO Invasion'', edited by Kendrick Frazier, Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1-57392-131-9. (There are several other articles.) SOURCES
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