Life on the Moon! (or how the first fake news in history spread)
(“History of Fake News” — Part 1)
False reports do exist longer than a real estate-billionaire is elected president of the United States. This is the first article of a series, where we are going to portray historic examples of “fake news”. Some of with had far-reaching consequences…
In 1835, The New York Sun (in the following: “The Sun”) was the leading penny-press-newspaper of the time, satisfying the demand for cheap news and human-interest stories, written in easy language. To reach this status The Sun got very “creative” in attracting readers attention.
Write something the reader would love to read and you’ll increase circulation…
To increase the relatively low daily circulation of about 8.000 copies, they had to come up with a sensational story. In August 1835, The Sun unveiled a six-part series under the title:
GREAT ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES LATELY MADE BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL, L.L.D. F.R.S. &c. At the Cape of Good Hope [From Supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science].
Life on the Moon — The first article briefly mentioned this sensational discovery. It focused on the work of the renowned British astronomer John Herschel. It gave a detailed description of a telescope, newly build by Herschel. A telescope of vast dimensions with a magnifying power of 42,000 times and lens weighing 7 tons.
This telescope never existed, but it was the source of credibility of the upcoming story. With this powerful modern telescope, it was possible to observe the most distant objects with absolute clarity.
The day after, the editors introduced the supposed author Dr. Andrew Grant. The article claimed, that Grant had written about Herschel’s discoveries in the Edinburgh Journal of Science. Dr. Andrew Grant reported on what happened when Herschel turned the telescope towards the moon.
He observed that there was plant life on the moon! The greenish-brown basaltic rocks were covered with „a dark red flower”. The question of whether there was animal life on the moon was answered shortly after. It was claimed that the scientists observed a wide range of extraterrestrial creatures. Starting from a herd of brown quadrupeds, very similar to bison, over bluish goats to a creature, „which rolled with great velocity across the pebbly beach.”
The most outstanding discovery was presented on the third day. Besides observing various other forms of animals, the scientists spotted a biped beaver. This primitive, yet intelligent species carried their young in their arms, had acquainted with the use of fire and constructed huts „better and higher than those of many tribes of human savages”.
But the discovery of the „beavers” wasn’t enough. The following day the narrator reported the discovery of a human-like creature.
These man-bats or Vespertilio-homo as Herschel called them were rational creatures and capable of intelligent of intelligent conversation. But they were mating with each other publicly — how indecent!
Get creative and claim it’s a valid statement.
After revealing such a groundbreaking discovery, it seemed hard to keep readers attracted to the extracts. So the Editor presented a mystery: an abandoned temple, built of polished sapphire. The roof looked like a mass of flames rising upwards a round body of copper. Was this a prediction of future events or a record of past events?
By discovering another form of the Vespertilio-homo and observing their activities, the scientist concluded that there was amity among all classes of creatures on the moon.
An accident brought an end to the series of discoveries. Unfortunately, the telescope was left in a position where it collected the sunlight and burned down parts of the observatory. By the time it was rebuilt, the moon was not observable anymore.
Because of the exceptional series, the daily circulation soared of The Sun soared to 19.360 per day.
This false reports about “life on the moon” made The Sun the top-selling paper in the world.
Many other penny papers republished the articles of The Sun or wrote about them. The discovery of intelligent life on the moon became an omnipresent topic in all parts of society.
After a month the news had spread all over the US and Europe.
The New York Times concluded, that the discoveries were probable and possible.
The reporter for The Sun was Richard Admas Locke, a descendant of the famous English philosopher bearing the same last name. Edgar Alan Poe later referred to Locke as an „unquestionable genius” who has the ability to write „with true imagination”.
It took over three weeks to check if the Edinburgh Journal of Science really had published what The Sun and its reporter Locke were referring, too. It took another three weeks until the information about this “fake news” reached the US again.
Herschel, who was an actual scientist in south africa, laughed when he heard about his infamous discoveries of life on the moon. He was indeed a astronomer but the first life on the moon was, very likely ;), the apollo missions.
The great moon hoax of 1835 is known to be the first “Fake news”. It is incredible how many readers were convinced there is actually life on the moon.
The incredible growth of The Sun is symptomatic until today —
write something the reader wish to believe, and you’ll increase reach, circulation or nowadays: TRAFFIC.
No matter if it’s actually true, or not…
Thanks to and source reference:
Anselm Heller, your’re Trudias first true hero!
