Maury Island Incident -- The Tacoma Times and the Crash Coverage
Maury Island Incident -- The Tacoma Times and the Crash Coverage
The Tacoma Times
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Publication | The Tacoma Times; a daily newspaper serving Tacoma, Washington |
| Period | Published from the early 20th century through the mid-20th century |
| Character | A working-class and afternoon newspaper; competed with the Tacoma News Tribune (the dominant paper); more willing to pursue sensational stories |
| Role in the Maury Island case | Published the story suggesting the B-25 had been "sabotaged or shot down"; the paper was the recipient of at least one of the anonymous telephone calls on August 1, 1947 |
The August 1, 1947 Crash Story
On the day of the B-25 crash -- August 1, 1947 -- the Tacoma Times received an anonymous telephone call from someone who claimed the plane had been "intentionally shot down" to prevent inspection of its UFO cargo. Based on this call, the Times published a story suggesting deliberate destruction of the aircraft.
The publication of this story, on the day of the crash and before any official Army statement about its cause, was a remarkable piece of journalism for a regional afternoon paper:
- It required making a very serious allegation (deliberate military murder) based solely on an anonymous telephone call
- It required someone at the paper to make a rapid editorial decision to publish
- The result was a headline that entered UFO history and has been cited in virtually every account of the Maury Island case written since
Journalism Standards of 1947
The publication of the crash-sabotage story reflects the journalism standards and competitive pressures of 1947 regional newspaper publishing:
- Afternoon papers competed intensely for scoops that morning papers had missed
- Anonymous tips from apparent insiders were regularly used as story sources with less verification than modern journalism standards would require
- The flying saucer wave had made UFO-related stories front-page material throughout the summer
- A tip suggesting a military cover-up of UFO evidence would be irresistible to a competitive afternoon paper
None of this excuses the publication, but it contextualizes it: the Tacoma Times was not uniquely irresponsible; it was operating within the norms of competitive mid-20th-century regional journalism when it published a sensational and ultimately baseless allegation.
The Source of the Call
As discussed in the Anonymous Phone Calls article, the most plausible source of the call to the Tacoma Times is Fred Crisman. The call gave the Times:
- An anonymous tip about a sensational story
- Information that could not be independently verified before deadline
- A narrative convenient to Crisman's interest in maintaining the mystique of the Maury Island story
The Tacoma Times' rapid publication turned what might have been a brief news item about a military aircraft accident into a conspiracy story that has lasted nearly eighty years. Whoever made the call understood the dynamics of competitive regional journalism well enough to exploit them effectively.
