Ross Coulthart is an Australian investigative journalist, author, and documentary producer whose five Walkley Awards — including the 2008 Gold Walkley — established him as one of Australia's most decorated broadcast journalists before he pivoted to UAP investigation.1 His June 2023 on-camera interview with David Grusch, a former intelligence officer alleging U.S. government possession of non-human craft, set off the most intense wave of mainstream UAP coverage since the 2017 New York Times reporting.2
Career Before UAP
Born in the United Kingdom on 30 August 1962, Coulthart grew up partly in New Zealand and obtained a law degree from Victoria University of Wellington in 1982.1 He began his journalism career at The New Zealand Herald before moving to Australia in 1985.
His long Australian television career took him through A Current Affair (1989–1992), Four Corners (1992–1995), the Sunday Program (1995–2009), and 60 Minutes (until 2018).1 Across those programs he produced investigations into Queensland political corruption, professional football integrity, Aboriginal legal services funding, CARE Australia practices, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. A 2002 collaboration with Max Stahl on East Timor coverage won a Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival.1 His biography of Australia's Official First World War historian Charles Bean co-won the 2015 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History.1
UAP Journalism and In Plain Sight
Around 2018 Coulthart began directing his investigative focus toward UAP. His book "In Plain Sight: An Investigation into UFOs and Impossible Science," published by HarperCollins in Australia in July 2021 and in the United States in October 2021, became a bestseller.3 The book served as an accessible overview of decades of UAP reports, government programs, and witness accounts, and it positioned Coulthart as a credible mainstream voice entering a field that had been dominated by enthusiast publications.
In 2023, Coulthart joined NewsNation as senior special investigations correspondent, hosting the "Reality Check" program and co-hosting the "Need to Know" podcast.45
The Grusch Interview
In June 2023 Coulthart conducted the first on-camera television interview with David Grusch, a decorated U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and former National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency representative to the UAP Task Force.2 Grusch alleged to Coulthart that the U.S. government and its contractors had recovered non-human craft and biological remains and had operated covert reverse-engineering programs for decades.2
The interview aired as the NewsNation special "We Are Not Alone" and generated global headlines.2 It directly preceded Grusch's July 2023 congressional testimony before the House Oversight Committee, the most high-profile UAP hearing in decades. Coulthart's role was primarily that of an interviewer and platform provider: he secured access to a named source willing to go on camera and gave that source a large public audience. He has not presented independent physical evidence corroborating Grusch's allegations.
Criticism and Contested Claims
Coulthart's UAP work has drawn substantial skeptical pushback. The Australian Skeptics gave him their 2023 Bent Spoon Award — presented for "the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle" — citing his espousal of UFO conspiracy theories "based on hearsay with no evidence, no bodies, no space junk."6 The award was described as a unanimous choice across Australian skeptics groups.6
In August 2023 NewsNation was forced to issue a correction after Coulthart alleged on air that The Intercept planned to publish leaked "confidential medical records" about Grusch.7 The Intercept's reporter Ken Klippenstein stated the records were obtained via publicly available law enforcement records and were neither confidential nor medical in nature.8 ABC's Media Watch also questioned the substantiation of his claims during the same period.
The U.S. government's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) released a historical review in early 2024 finding no verifiable evidence that the U.S. government possesses extraterrestrial technology or operates reverse-engineering programs — directly undercutting the central thesis Coulthart has championed.9 Predictions he has made about imminent major revelations have not materialized on the timelines he suggested.
Evidentiary Assessment
Coulthart's contribution to the UAP disclosure discussion is that of an experienced investigative journalist who secured named and anonymous sources willing to make significant on-record allegations and who provided a credible mainstream platform for those allegations. His pre-UAP Walkley record demonstrates genuine investigative capability and professional standing.1
His evidentiary contribution on UAP is limited to source access and platform. He does not possess and has not presented independent physical evidence, sensor data, or documents that would corroborate the core claims his sources make. The Grusch allegations he amplified remain unverified by any open-source evidence base as of mid-2026, and the institutional consensus from AARO runs against the central claim.9 The factual error in the Intercept coverage episode is also notable for a journalist of his standing.7