Recently the BBC and other News organisations reported on the on-going
claim that the Apollo Moon landings were a hoax.

 Was this issue newsworthy because
  1.  The relevent organisations thought there was a possibility that it may
      be true?
  2.  The fact that people could seriously suggest such a preposterious idea 
      was in itself newsworthy?
  3. Some other reason?

  Cheers
  Mongolia

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 20 Jan 2004 14:14 PST

This issue is re-awakened ever so often simply because conspiracy theory sells.

Would you like me to expand on this a bit more or does this answer your question?

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 20 Jan 2004 14:42 PST

I can understand the National Enquirer raising this type of news story.
 But when it is the BBC, Then I would like to know what their motivation is
 and yes  I would thus like you to expand a little bit on this.

  Regards

  Mongolia

---

Clarification of Question by mongolia-ga on 07 Feb 2004 05:31 PST

Any further progress on this question?

  Thanks 

   Mongolia

Dear mongolia-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

The myth that the United States somehow, and for some bizarre reason,
spent millions of dollars to fake a lunar landing had been prevalent
since the moment it was announced that man set foot on the surface of
the moon. The BBC is not the only seemingly credible media outlet to
air such stories, but then again you aren?t likely to hear one of
these networks support the position that a conspiracy to defraud the
entire world actually happened either. Rather they more commonly air
both side of the long but not seriously debated myth and leave it to
their paid sponsor drawing viewers to decide. CNN, FOX and many other
have also aired documentary debates about the journey to the moon and
of course, NASA itself is aware of the hoax theories and debunks the
notion on it?s web site.

Self described astronomer Phil Plait is probably one of the best, most
recent sources for moon hoax information, and on his site,
BADASTRONOMY.COM he outlines a number of reasons why 6% (according to
this 1999 Gallup Poll) of those polled (and not 20% as often
misstated) believe NASA never landed a man on the moon.

BADASTRONOMY.COM
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

THE GALLUP ORGANIZATION
http://www.gallup.com/content/?ci=3712

Starwatcher Phil, among other things mentions a notable lack of stars
in the photos made by astronauts, the lack of a blast area on the
moon?s surface underneath and around the landing module, the length
and color of shadows, physics, and video errors as the most widely
reported reasons why people choose to believe the landing never
happened. His site is basically a treasure chest of rumors,
explanations, and links to other sites where the hoax is both
supported and debunked.

It should be noted too that stories of this kind on BBC, CNN, FOX and
the like are not leading news stories, but human interest ? or at
times perhaps even tongue-in-cheek entertainment, aired with a wink
and a smile. Rest assured that if any credible evidence whatsoever
were suddenly discovered that the moon landing did not actually take
place as the world was led to believe, it would be one of the biggest
news stories of our time and it would likely be ?front page? news for
decades to come as the most elaborate and enormous lie ever told, and
heads would roll in the fallout. It is also relevant to mention that
these same channels ironically often report radar tracking of Santa
Claus (supposedly by NASA) and his travel progress at Christmas time,
but no one has ever assumed that this is a definitive proof that he
really exists. The bottom line is ENTERTAINMENT: entertainment brings
in viewers, a large viewing audience attracts sponsors and sponsors
pay the networks ridiculously large sums of money based on how many
people will see their commercials?period. In terms of product
exposure, 6% is a humongous number. An opportunity to expose just 6%
of the nations viewers to an advertised product is irresistible, so it
doesn?t really matter what the story is, if it?s likely to produce a
large viewing audience and the sponsors are willing to pay for a spot
during that episode, the network will air it ? and so it is with the
never-ending, stored-on-the-shelf-for?hard-times Apollo hoax, which is
given new life ever so often (conveniently when there is little else
to draw viewers) and has for many decades.

Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


BADASTRONOMY.COM
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

THE GALLUP ORGANIZATION
http://www.gallup.com/content/?ci=3712

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/02/19/nasa.moon/

THE APOLLO HOAX
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html

A RESPONSE TO THE APOLLO HOAX ALLEGATION
http://homepage.mac.com/casewright/essays/apollo.html


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINES USED:

Google ://www.google.com




SEARCH TERMS USED:

MOON, LUNAR, LANDING, APOLLO, HOAX