Check out THIS article from British newspaper The Independent.

Here are some of the gems:

"Granted, the Fox programme was not intended as a pinnacle of investigative journalism – this is a network, after all, whose previous offerings have included such shameless tabloid romps as When Good Pets Go Bad and Alien Autopsy – but it caused a sensation none the less. All sorts of nuts started coming out of the woodwork, peddling their own twists on the Moon hoax. The internet went crazy with theories and counter-theories. A "self-taught engineer" from New Jersey called Ralph Rene produced a monograph, "Nasa Mooned America", in which he referred to the heroes of the Apollo missions as "astro-nots". (His humour, one presumes, was also self-taught.)"

.. and ....

"A few weeks ago, Nasa tried again, announcing that it was commissioning a respected popular science writer, Jim Oberg, to write a lengthy pamphlet dismantling the naysayers' arguments one by one. An enthusiastic Oberg explained how much he was looking forward to the task, not just because he relished the chance to demolish the sensationalism of the Fox programme but because he wanted people to understand why such conspiracy theories arise in the first place. "There is no such thing as a stupid question," he said. "Every time something like this comes up, it is an opportunity for teaching and learning."

But now Nasa has just played into the hands of the conspiracists all over again by abruptly changing its mind and cancelling Oberg's contract. Officially, the reason was that the space agency considered the Moon landing hoax to be so preposterous as to be unworthy of a response. Unofficially, sources close to Nasa suggested, top management was worried that publicity over Oberg's book would distract from its current political difficulties in shoring up the agency's budget. But in that realm that is so far off from officialdom as to be absent from reality altogether, there was no doubt what Nasa's decision portended. Almost in unison, every Moon-obsessed conspiracy theorist floating out in cyberspace gasped in amazement: My God, these people really do have something to hide!"

... and ....

"Bart Sibrel, meanwhile, likes to say he is a former television journalist with NBC, when in fact he did no more than work once as a part-time editor at NBC's Nashville affiliate for a couple of months. (NBC has disowned him entirely.) His "never before seen footage" of the faked Moon landing turns out to be a publicly accessible Nasa tape of astronauts preparing, without subterfuge, to go on television for an interview."

It´s a very long and very good article. Read it and .. Smile !! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bad_Moon_Rising on 2002-11-27 21:04 ]</font>

That article just about says it all. A great piece!!!