Ross Coulthart

Australian investigative journalist and author

Ross Coulthart

Coulthart in 2012

Citizenship| Australian
Education| Victoria University of Wellington
Website
www.rosscoulthart.com

Ross Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist and author who has also worked in public relations. He is an advocate for the idea that governments are covering up knowledge of UFOs and alien visitations.

Ross Coulthart at Mosman Library, Australia in 2012

## Early life

[edit]

Coulthart was born in the UK. He later moved along with his family to New Zealand and enrolled at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he graduated with a law degree. He then moved to Australia, where he started his career as a journalist.[1]

## Career

[edit]

On a 1994 episode of the Australian TV program Four Corners, Coulthart broadcast an allegation that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service "secretly holds tens of thousands of files on Australian citizens, a database completely outside privacy laws".[2] Coulthart's allegations prompted the Minister for Foreign Affairs Gareth Evans to call a "root and branch" review of the ASIS led by Justice Gordon Samuels and Mike Codd. In their Report on the Australian Secret Intelligence Service released in 1995, Coulthart's allegation was investigated and denied by Samuels and Codd,[3]: xxiii but Evans did acknowledge that "ASIS does have some files, as one would expect in an organisation of that nature, even though its brief extends to activities outside the country rather than inside. They are essentially of an administrative nature."[4] While Samuels and Codd did find that certain grievances of former ASIS officers were well founded,[3]: xxxi they observed that the information published in the Four Corners program was "skewed towards the false",[3]: xx that "the level of factual accuracy about operational matters was not high",[3]: xxiii and, quoting an aphorism, that "what was disturbing was not true and what was true was not disturbing".[3]: xxiii They concluded that the disclosure of the information was unnecessary and unjustifiable and had damaged the reputation of ASIS and Australia overseas.[3]: xx

In 2008, Coulthart wrote about an Australian medical scandal entitled The Butcher of Bega.[5]

In 2010, he reinvestigated the murder of two young Australian tourists by IRA terrorists 20 years earlier.[6]

In 2014, Coulthart worked as chief investigations reporter for Channel 7's Sunday Night news program, but resigned after he reportedly "stepped in to break up a physical fight" between two producers.[7] Coulthart worked as an investigative journalist for Australian news and current affairs program 60 Minutes on Channel Nine, but left in 2018 after his contract was not renewed.[8]

In 2018, Coulthart was employed by a public relations firm, where he managed the public relations for ex-soldier and accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith,[9] who in 2023 was found by Justice Anthony Besanko to have participated in the murder of four Afghans.[10]

Coulthart returned to reporting, focusing on proving the existence of UFOs.

In 2021, Coulthart starred in The UFO Phenomenon, a special television series for Seven News in Australia that claimed to "unearth startling new evidence of UFOs from government officials and eyewitnesses that will change everything you thought you knew about the universe."[11]

In 2021, Coulthart authored a book titled In Plain Sight: An Investigation into UFOs and Impossible Science. Author Pippa Goldschmidt said "Coulthart provides a balanced historical and global summary of UFO sightings ... Fatally for his argument, however, he shows signs of wanting to believe it."[12] According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the book made Coulthart something of a cult hero in American UFO circles.[13] Maariv noted in 2023 that the book had received global media attention.[14]

In 2022, Coulthart and co-host Bryce Zabel began hosting Need To Know, a UFOlogy podcast promoted as "revealing the mysteries of the universe to the people of the earth".[15][better source needed]

In June 2023, Coulthart conducted an interview for NewsNation with USAF officer David Grusch and joined Grusch in alleging that the U.S. federal government maintains a highly secretive UFO retrieval program and is in possession of both extraterrestrial spacecraft and the corpses of non-human pilots.[16] In August 2023, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's program Media Watch questioned the lack of evidence for Coulthart's claims that the United States government had covered up knowledge of aliens and the retrieval of alien spacecraft.[17] In December 2023, Australian Skeptics announced that Coulthart was their 2023 Bent Spoon Award winner for his uncritical journalism concerning his belief that governments are covering up "'wreckage of downed extraterrestrial spacecraft and the bodies of their pilots.'"[18]

In November 2023, NewsNation announced it had signed Coulthart as a special projects correspondent.[19] His first project, "Unsolved: The JFK Assassination"[20] was released during the week of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.[21]

## Awards and honors

[edit]

* Coulthart won the 1996 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Public Affairs for an expose of corruption in Australian Aboriginal Legal Services.[22][23]
* In 2002, he and Max Stahl won the gold medal for best international report at the New York Film Festival for an investigation into how Indonesian and militia perpetrators of violence in East Timor had escaped punishment.[22]
* In 2008, Gold Walkley with Nick Farrow for the report Butcher of Bega: Investigation of a doctor's alleged malpractice and incompetence in Bega which aired on Sunday on Nine Network.[24][25] He has also won four non-gold Walkleys.[22]
* Coulthart was joint winner of the 2015 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History for Charles Bean.[26]

## Books

[edit]

* co-author Dead Man Running
* co-author Above the Law
* Charles Bean (HarperCollins)[27]
* Lost Diggers[28]
* The Lost Tommies[29]
* In Plain Sight: an Investigation Into UFOs and Impossible Science (2021, reprinted 2023)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ May 27, Norma french; Am, 2017 at 12:41. "» Ross Coulthart, author of The Lost Diggers, answers Ten Terrifying QuestionsThe Booktopian". Retrieved 2023-06-09.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. ^ Statement by Ross Coulthart in Four Corners program of 21 February 1994
3. ^ a b c d e f Samuels, Gordon J.; Codd, Michael H. (1995). Commission of Inquiry into the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Report on the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (PDF) (Public ed.). Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 0-644-43201-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
4. ^ The Minister said: "ASIS does have some files, as one would expect in an organisation of that nature, even though its brief extends to activities outside the country rather than inside. They are essentially of an administrative nature": Senator Gareth Evans, Answer to Question Without Notice, Senate, Debates, 22 February 1994, p. 859
5. ^ "Sunday journos win Gold Walkley". TV Tonight. David Knox. 28 November 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
6. ^ "Australians died to protect informers - claim". republican-news.org. Republican News. Retrieved 23 August 2010.
7. ^ "Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart quits Channel 7's Sunday Night program after newsroom punch-up". dailytelegraph.com.au. Annette Sharp. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
8. ^ "Ross Coulthart departs 60 Minutes". smh.com.au. Broede Carmody. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
9. ^ "Ep 27 - Fairfax v Ben Roberts-Smith". Media Watch. 2018-08-13. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
10. ^ Doherty, Ben (2023-06-01). "Ben Roberts-Smith loses defamation case, with judge finding former SAS soldier committed war crimes". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
11. ^ "7NEWS Spotlight special The UFO Phenomenon reveals the truth about UFOs". 7news.au. t News Australia. 27 May 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
12. ^ Goldschmidt, Pippa (5 November 2021). "The search for evidence of extraterrestrial sightings". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
13. ^ Napier-Raman, Kishor; Mannix, Liam (24 August 2023). "Ben Roberts-Smith backer Ross Coulthart now a leading UFO truther". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
14. ^ "Journalist predicts UFO truth to surface, revealing stunning secrets". Maariv. 3 October 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2024 - via The Jerusalem Post.
15. ^ Couthart, Ross. "ROSS COULTHART AND BRYCE ZABEL INVESTIGATE THE UFO/UAP MYSTERY". needtoknow.com. Need to Know with Coulthart and Zabel. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
16. ^ Gipson, Andy; Sancho, Miguel; Lake, Zoë; Leavitt, Dana; Coulthart, Ross (2023-06-11). "We are not alone: The UFO whistleblower speaks". NewsNation. Retrieved 2023-06-12.
17. ^ "Ep 30 - The truth is out there". Media Watch. 2023-08-28. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
18. ^ Towell, Noel (December 4, 2023). "Journalism heavyweight's alien truth is right out there, say Skeptics". The Age.
19. ^ Mastrangelo, Dominick. "NewsNation signs Ross Coulthart as special correspondent". The Hill via MSN. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
20. ^ "Ross Coulthart Joins NewsNation as Special Correspondent and Investigative Journalist". www.adweek.com. 2023-11-14. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
21. ^ "Unsolved: The JFK Assassination | A NewsNation Special Report". NewsNation. 2023-11-20. Retrieved 2023-11-22.
22. ^ a b c "Ross Coulthart". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
23. ^ "Ross Coulthart joins Seven". TV Tonight. David Knox. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
24. ^ Knox, David (28 November 2008). "Sunday journos win Gold Walkley". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
25. ^ "Fairfax reporters shine as Journalism's best honoured". smh.com.au. Fairfax Media. 27 November 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
26. ^ "Ross Coulthart". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
27. ^ Grey, Reviewer: Jeffrey (November 21, 2014). "Book reviews: Charles Bean's Gallipoli Illustrated; Charles Bean". The Sydney Morning Herald.
28. ^ Crawford, Robert (July 25, 2017). "Journalist Ross Coulthart's quest to find The Lost Diggers of Vignacourt". South Coast Register. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
29. ^ Conrad, Peter (May 29, 2016). "The Lost Tommies by Ross Coulthart review – young martyrs to pointlessness". The Guardian.

## External links

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