The media was accused of hampering communication with extraterrestrials this week in 1980.

As if this were not strange enough, the accusers had a valid point.

“If you call UFO investigators ‘flying saucer chasers,’ you’re liable to send them into orbit,” began an Adver story.

It appeared beneath a picture of a flying saucer.

We added: “Members of SCUFORI - the Swindon Centre for UFO Research and Investigation - believe it’s the fear of being thought a nutter that prevents many people from reporting sightings.

“Nationally only about one person in ten who sees an unidentified flying object reports it - but the Swindon experts reckon their average is fewer, with only three or four sightings reported to them a year.

“And they lay the blame at the door of newspapers, television and exploitation ‘flying saucer’ books hat have scared people off.”

Yep. To read more, click here.