Ross Coulthart

Career and Credentials

Ross Coulthart is an Australian-American investigative journalist with over 35 years in broadcast television, newspaper journalism, and documentary production. Born August 30, 1962, Coulthart earned a law degree from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) and began his journalism career at The New Zealand Herald in 1982. His investigative work in Australia spanned multiple flagship programs: A Current Affair (Nine Network, 1989–1992), The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC TV's Four Corners, Sixty Minutes, and Channel Seven's Sunday Night. As of 2023, he serves as Senior Special Investigations Correspondent for NewsNation, a U.S. national news network based in Chicago.

Coulthart has won five Walkley Awards, Australia's highest journalism honor, including the Gold Walkley (the top prize). His broadcast work also earned a Logie Award (Australia's top television honor). In 2015, his acclaimed biography of World War I war correspondent and historian Charles Bean won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for History. He has co-authored six bestselling books, including The Lost Diggers, Dead Man Running, and Above the Law (an expose of organized crime within Australian motorcycle gangs). He is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

UFO/UAP Investigation

Coulthart came to UFO/UAP investigation as a skeptic. He has stated that when beginning his research, he "started thinking I was going to write a debunking book." In 2021, he published In Plain Sight: An Investigation into UFOs and Impossible Science, a bestselling deep dive into documented UFO incidents and government secrecy. The book draws on his journalistic rigor to examine Australian and international sighting records, government responses, and the cultural history of UFO belief.

In 2025, Coulthart expanded his UAP coverage through Reality Check, his popular podcast and show for NewsNation, which climbed to the top 50 podcasts and focuses on UAP disclosure, government transparency, and witness testimony. In January 2025, he conducted an exclusive, on-the-record interview with Jake Barber, a former U.S. intelligence contractor and helicopter pilot who claimed participation in a classified program to recover unidentified craft, some of which he believed to be non-human in origin. The Barber interview became the first on-the-record testimony of a purported witness to a U.S. covert non-human intelligence (NHI) technology recovery program, and prompted the Pentagon's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to investigate Barber's claims. Coulthart has continued to cover Trump administration UAP disclosures, including the PURSUE file releases in May 2026.

Approach and Credibility

Coulthart's investigation of UFOs is characterized by journalistic rigor rather than sensationalism. He applies the same investigative standards that earned him five Walkley Awards to UAP testimony and government records. He maintains critical perspective on whistleblower claims—notably, he has been cautious about independent verification of Barber's testimony while still treating the allegations as worthy of serious investigation. He advocates strongly for Pentagon transparency and congressional accountability in UAP programs, arguing that the scope of existing data, if genuinely declassified, would constitute a significant revelation regardless of whether UAPs are confirmed as non-human in origin.

As a mainstream, award-winning journalist with impeccable credentials and international recognition, Coulthart represents a notable shift in how establishment media treats UFO/UAP topics—not as fringe speculation, but as serious investigative journalism and national security accountability.