George Knapp

Las Vegas TV reporter who broke the Bob Lazar story in 1989, co-hosts Weaponized, and testified to the House UAP task force in September 2025.

Current role: Chief Investigative Reporter, KLAS-TV (8 News Now), Las Vegas; co-host of Weaponized with Jeremy Corbell; host of Mystery Wire; frequent guest host, Coast to Coast AM

Former roles:

Reporter and anchor, KLAS-TV (from 1981; left 1991, rehired 1995)
Altamira Communications (public relations), 1991 to 1995

Background

George Knapp is the chief investigative reporter at KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, where he has worked since 1981 apart from a four-year gap in the early 1990s. In November 1989 his nine-part series UFOs: The Best Evidence named Bob Lazar and his claims about a reverse-engineering site called S-4 near Area 51, the reporting that made Area 51 a household name. He co-wrote Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005) with Colm Kelleher, worked with Robert Bigelow's National Institute for Discovery Science, has co-hosted Weaponized with Jeremy Corbell since January 2023 and hosted the 2024 Netflix series Investigation Alien. His awards include a Peabody and multiple Edward R. Murrow and regional Emmy awards. On 9 September 2025 he testified under oath to the House Oversight Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets. His written testimony is the fullest statement of his own position.

On the record

2025-09-09 – House Oversight Task Force hearing, written testimony – "I'm George Knapp, Chief Investigative Reporter for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas—not a whistleblower, and not a UFO witness"; "My pursuit of the UFO mystery—and the many rabbit holes attached to it—started in 1987, 38 years ago."; "To me, it is—and always has been—a news story, and an important one, likely the biggest story I will ever cover." He said the FOIA paper trail, not crash stories, first hooked him, and told the committee: "They lied, and are still lying, to the public and to Congress." – Testimony PDF · Hearing
2025-06-17 – Weaponized, with Corbell – released 2020 thermal footage of a disc-shaped object attributed to an Air Force platform. – Video
2025-04-29 – Weaponized, Ep. 74 – co-hosted the first public interview with Matthew Brown, who said he wrote the "Immaculate Constellation" report. – Episode
2025-04-08 – with Corbell – released the USS Jackson "tic-tac" footage. – Clip
2024-11-08 – Netflix – Investigation Alien, a docuseries he hosted, released. – KLAS
1989-11-06 – KLAS – Part 1 of UFOs: The Best Evidence aired, naming Bob Lazar. Knapp, on the 30th anniversary: "We spent nearly 8 months putting the original series together." – KLAS

Reported claims (secondary / anonymous-sourced)

2025-09-09 – written testimony – said that in 1989 he spoke to more than two dozen sources with pieces of the Lazar story, that six were visited the next day by people who told them to stay quiet, and that the late EG&G manager Al O'Donnell told him over several months about securing a crashed craft in the 1950s. These accounts rest on unnamed or deceased sources and Knapp presents them as his own reporting. – Testimony PDF
2025-06-17 – disc footage – according to Corbell and Knapp, citing unnamed sources, the clip matched classified assessments. No official response located. – Video

Responses and criticism

Bob Lazar's claimed credentials, including degrees from MIT and Caltech, have never been verified, which remains the main criticism of the 1989 reporting. Knapp told the committee he would not relitigate it: "If I did not believe him, I would not still be reporting on his claims." – Wikipedia: Bob Lazar · Testimony PDF

Timeline of involvement

1981 – joins KLAS-TV
1989-11-06 – UFOs: The Best Evidence names Bob Lazar
2005 – Hunt for the Skinwalker published
2023-01-24 – Weaponized launches with Jeremy Corbell
2024-11-08 – Investigation Alien released on Netflix
2025-04-29 – Matthew Brown interview
2025-09-09 – testifies to the House Oversight Task Force

Relevant links

Part of the Key People in Disclosure series. Verified 2026-10-10. Spotted an error? Reach out.