Fess up to what? If they "fess up" to not knowing anything about alien visits, that fact alone will be viewed as "proof", by the "UFO community", of a coverup. And they can't "fess up" to knowing all about alien visits if there have been none.
Ed Mitchell has been on this "trek" for a long time. He's also big into all the other "branches" of this "culture", ESP, spoon bending, crop circles, etc.
I am strangly fascinated by the "UFO community", but I know not why. I don't believe ETs have ever visited us, but that so many people do believe this is interesting to me.
I once saw a "pro UFO" Discovery Channel program that was showing us film of one of those "un-explainable" objects that was clearly an airliner shot from long range, slightly out of focus (as they always are...), at high altitude, and under lighting conditions (dusk or dawn) that showed the fuselage bathed in sunlight, but not so much the wings. I was amazed. You could even see the wings and the shadow they cast across the fuselage.