UFO skeptic Michael Shermer apologizes to David Grusch
One of the UFO world's most outspoken skeptics has apologized to one of its most famous whistleblowers. Michael Shermer's apology to David Grusch comes as he joins Avi Loeb's UAP advisory panel.
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Veteran UFO skeptic Michael Shermer has apologized to whistleblower David Grusch after previously dismissing his claims in highly critical terms.
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The apology comes as Shermer joins Avi Loeb's new UAP Science Advisory Panel, placing a prominent skeptic alongside scientists investigating unexplained aerial phenomena.
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Not everyone is convinced by the change in tone, with some UFO enthusiasts questioning Shermer's motives and viewing the apology with skepticism.
A certain amount of friction within a particular movement can be healthy. And for the UFO whistleblower movement, scientist Michael Shermer has certainly given his fair share of resistance.
The scientist, who was recently hired for Avi Loeb's new governmental UAP Science Advisory Panel, has been posting his skepticism online since the 1990s.
And now he’s apologized for his more recent form of slating top whistleblower David Grusch, the former US intelligence officer who alleged the US government has recovered non-human craft.
The move came after journalist Ross Coulthart, whose interviews helped bring Grusch's claims to a wider audience, accused Shermer of deleting the “puerile and snide tweets” he had previously posted.
Not an auspicious start for sceptic @michaelshermer in his appointment to the UAP Science Advisory Committee. He deleted the puerile and snide tweets he posted about UAP former IC informant David Grusch and then he wonders why he's getting push-back from a community looking for… https://t.co/79cyN6lKMp
undefined Ross Coulthart (@rosscoulthart) June 21, 2026
In an accepting tone, Shermer took to X to comment that online posts can indeed be “snide and snarky.”
He also mentioned that he had deleted his posts criticizing Grusch, as well as defending his previous stance. Shermer's old posts were “extraordinary claims made there with zero evidence in support (such as that we know aliens are here),” the post read.
The skeptic also plugged his new book, Truth, while suggesting a talk on Coultart's NewsNation program, in the process asking, “So how about a conversation on your show?”
Fair enough @rosscoulthart X posts can be snide & snarky responses to extraordinary claims made there with 0 evidence in support (such as that we know aliens are here). I retracted those posts & I hereby apologize to David Grusch (he doesn't appear to have an X account & I don't… https://t.co/dRJzZwHQBb
undefined Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) June 21, 2026
Shermer had previously called out Grusch for being in the “top 10 of all time bullshitters” as well as promoting “bunkum, blather, and codswallop.”
The post, made in June 2023, was critical of Grusch’s interview on NewsNation, in which he made bombshell claims that the US is guilty of covering up the fact that they have alien remains, as well as possessing spacecraft taken from crash-retrieval sites and reverse-engineering them.
“This is a detective story”
And, as Avi Loeb, the Harvard astrophysicist leading the UAP Science Advisory Panel, stated on X: “[T]his is a detective story that can be resolved with better data.”
According to Skeptic magazine (which Shermer founded), he is specifically tasked to "contribute his decades of experience in scientific skepticism, anomaly investigation, and public communication.”
In November 2025, Shermer and Loeb made a public bet about the discovery of alien life and UFO disclosure.
Running until the end of 2030, the $1000 wager stipulates that for Loeb to win, either NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), or the American Astronomical Society (AAS) must officially declare the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
I’ve got $1000 bet that it’s not coming in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 or 2030…or ever because space aliens have not come to Earth. But I’m happy to be proven wrong. https://t.co/u5Ol7Gej1K
undefined Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) December 28, 2025
“Get in the back of the line…”
The Reddit r/UFO shared their own skepticism regarding the apology, with one poster comparing him to fellow skeptic, Neil deGrasse Tyson, saying that “everyone wants the alien dollar these days.”
Another Redditor showed impatience with the sentiment by saying, “I don't care for the people who are having a change of mind with a book for sale,” and ordering Shermer to “get in the back of the line and be quiet.”
And, with Shermer and Loeb now on the same scientific panel, the mind wonders at the near-term possibilities of discovery.
