George Knapp (journalist)

This article is about the American journalist. See George Knapp (disambiguation) for others with the same name.

George Knapp (born April 18, 1952) is an American journalist and talk radio host.

A longtime fixture in Las Vegas media, he works at KLAS-TV^[1] and is also a frequent host of the Sunday night/Monday morning Coast To Coast AM syndicated radio show. He is known for his work on anomalous phenomena,^[2] which is a frequent topic of the Coast to Coast show. George Knapp hosts Coast to Coast AM on the 3rd and 4th Sundays of the month and sometimes the 5th.

Biography

Born in Woodbury, New Jersey, Knapp grew up in Northern California and graduated from Franklin High School in Stockton, where he was the senior class president. He earned a Bachelor's degree in communication from University of West Georgia and a Master's degree in the same field from University of the Pacific. He taught debate and forensics at both the University of the Pacific and University of California, Berkeley.^[3]

He moved to Las Vegas in the early 1980s, working first as a cab driver before being hired as an intern and then a news reporter at a PBS station. From there, Knapp was hired as a reporter and news anchor for KLAS. Knapp became known nationally in the late 1980s by reporting the story of Bob Lazar, who claimed to have worked on extraterrestrial UFOs at the secretive Area 51. Due in part to Knapp's discovery of evidence corroborating some of Lazar's claims, Knapp's stories on Lazar were taken more seriously than typical UFO fare.^[4] In 1990, Knapp's stories on Lazar earned an "Individual Achievement by a Journalist" award from the United Press International.^[1] However, to Knapp's "eternal shame," he also during this era publicized the claims of conspiracy theorist Bill Cooper, whom Knapp came to regard as far less credible than Lazar.^[3]

In 1991, Knapp left KLAS to work for Altamira Communications, a public relations firm whose clients included advocates of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository 90 miles (140 km) north of Las Vegas.^[5] Knapp was rehired by KLAS-TV in the mid 1990s when he left the public relations firm.

He wrote a regular column titled "Knappster" for the now-defunct alternative newsweekly Las Vegas Mercury. The "Knappster" column now appears in Las Vegas CityLife, an alternative newsweekly published by Stephens Media LLC, the same company that formerly published the Mercury.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Knapp worked with the now-defunct group National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS). Founded by Las Vegas businessman Robert Bigelow, NIDS was charged with scientifically studying unusual phenomenon with scientists and funding. Based on his work with NIDS and biochemist Colm Kelleher, Knapp publicized the so-called Skinwalker Ranch in northeast Utah, where strange events are alleged to have occurred.^[6][7]

In 2004, Knapp won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for a story about vote fraud in Clark County, Nevada.^[1] He has also won over a dozen Emmy Awards and several writing awards from the Associated Press.^[1]

Knapp and photojournalist Matt Adams were recognized for their work on the investigative series Crossfire: Water, Power and Politics that received a 2008 Peabody Award.^[8]

References

External links

• George Knapp at the Internet Movie Database
• Profile at Coast to Coast AM
• The Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction Stories by Above Top Secret
• George Knapp, TV Newsman, First Publicized Bob Lazar
• Transcript of an Interview from November 17, 1989 by Chuck Harder