George Knapp: The Las Vegas Reporter Behind Lazar and Skinwalker
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
George Knapp is a veteran investigative journalist at KLAS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, where he has worked since the early 1980s. Most of his reporting career has been spent on the ordinary business of local news: Nevada politics, public corruption, casinos and government secrecy. His work has earned major journalism awards, including a Peabody.
Outside Nevada, however, Knapp is best known for something else. In 1989 he put Bob Lazar on television, and over the following decades he became one of the most prominent mainstream journalists to take UFO and paranormal claims seriously. That dual reputation, a respected newsman who also champions contested stories, is the key to understanding both his influence and the criticism he attracts.
The Bob Lazar interviews
In 1989 Knapp aired interviews with a man who said he had worked on alien spacecraft at a facility called S-4 near Area 51. The first appearance, in May, hid the man’s identity; by November he was on camera as Robert Lazar. The reports made Area 51 a household name and turned Lazar into one of the most famous figures in UFO history.
Knapp has stood by Lazar ever since. He has said that he checked what he could, that some details about Lazar’s connection to Los Alamos held up, and that he believes the missing education records point to interference rather than invention. Critics, including many UFO researchers, argue that the failure to confirm Lazar’s degrees or his S-4 employment should have weighed more heavily. Knapp appears extensively in Jeremy Corbell’s 2018 documentary about Lazar.
Skinwalker Ranch and NIDS
In 1996 the Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow bought a remote cattle ranch in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah, where the previous owners had reported strange lights, animal deaths and other odd events. Bigelow’s National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) used it as a research site. Knapp was given unusual access to the investigation and reported on it.
In 2005 Knapp and Colm Kelleher, a biochemist who had led much of the NIDS field work, published Hunt for the Skinwalker, an account of the ranch investigation. The book describes many reported incidents but, as its authors acknowledge, no conclusive proof of anything paranormal. It became the foundation of the modern Skinwalker Ranch legend.
AAWSAP and Skinwalkers at the Pentagon
In 2021 Knapp, Kelleher and James Lacatski, a former Defense Intelligence Agency scientist, published Skinwalkers at the Pentagon. The book describes the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency effort funded from 2008 that contracted Bigelow’s company to study UFOs and related phenomena, including at the Utah ranch.
The existence of the contract is documented. The book’s descriptions of what the programme found are the authors’ own accounts and have not been independently confirmed. AARO’s 2024 historical report reviewed AAWSAP and concluded that it produced no evidence of extraterrestrial technology, and criticised the programme’s focus on paranormal topics.
Weaponized and recent work
In 2023 Knapp and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell launched Weaponized, a podcast and video series about UAP, government secrecy and whistleblowers. The show has released previously unseen material that its hosts say came from military sources, and has hosted interviews with figures such as David Grusch.
Knapp has also been a regular guest host of the late-night radio programme Coast to Coast AM, which reaches a large audience interested in UFO and paranormal topics.
Why he matters, and why he is criticised
- Supporters see Knapp as a rare professional journalist willing to report on a stigmatised subject and to protect sources inside secretive programmes.
- Critics argue that his long advocacy for Lazar and for paranormal readings of Skinwalker Ranch goes beyond reporting, and that he has been too ready to accept testimony that cannot be verified.
- Both views agree on one point: few individuals have done more to shape how UFO stories reach mainstream American audiences since 1989.
- When reading his work, it helps to separate what he documents directly, such as the existence of AAWSAP, from what his sources claim, such as recovered craft.
Sources
- Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah — Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp, Paraview Pocket Books, 2005
- Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders’ Account of the Secret Government UFO Program — James T. Lacatski, Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp, RTMA, 2021
- Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume 1 — All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, U.S. Department of Defense, 2024
This article has been compiled from the sources listed but has not yet been independently checked against them. If you spot an error, tell us. Contact
