************************************************************** * * * CYBERSPACE * * A biweekly column on net culture appearing * * in the Toronto Sunday Sun * * * * Copyright 1999 Karl Mamer * * Free for online distribution * * All Rights Reserved * * Direct comments and questions to: * * * * * ************************************************************** First Barsoom now the Moon On March 22, news organizations in America began to get strange calls from the public demanding to know why they didn't cover Richard C. Hoagland's March 21 "Enterprise Mission" press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. On March 14 Hoagland, author of a 1987 book that alleges that there's a face on Mars, issued a press release announcing he would reveal that NASA is suppressing evidence of alien structures on the moon! News organizations get press releases and manifestos from kooks quite frequently. Unfortunately there isn't enough time in the day to track down every bizarro claim. Any press release about hidden evidence of gigantic buildings on the most observed object in the night-time sky would likely get immediately recycled or posted near the coffee maker with the appropriate laugh lines circled. Well, those days might be over. It's going to be harder to ignore cranks. Hoagland just didn't issue his press release to the media. It was posted to the Internet's popular net.news system. The press release sounded legit. "Former NASA Scientists" were to reveal that "photos show astronauts walking amid apparent lunar ruins_" Although the scientific community has shown that Hoagland's earlier theory about a face on Mars is untenable (see barsoom.msss.com/education/facepage/face.html), lots of net.news subscribers were convinced you don't just hold a briefing at the Washington press club unless you have hard evidence. Unable to actually get out to D.C. themselves, net users demanded the media bring it to them. Most broadcasters and newspapers didn't and took a lot of angry calls. One broadcaster that did pay attention was Art Bell, a popular American talk radio host. Bell interviewed Hoagland and Ken Johnston, one of the "NASA scientists." You can read a transcript of the two-hour interview at www.artbell.com/art/hoagland.html. You can also view photographs at this site that supposedly prove his thesis. The problem is there's nothing in these photos that look even remotely like ruins. They're just plain old moonscapes. What is claimed to be suppressed evidence is, in fact, public domain. One net.news reader noted on alt.conspiracy that it is a little rude to claim NASA is hiding something that has been out in the open for a quarter century. Hoagland's NASA scientist even admits during the Bell interview that when he first looked at the photos, he didn't see anything unnatural until it was, gosh, pointed out to him! The Bell interview also revealed that Johnston wasn't really a NASA scientist per se but an employee for a NASA contractor. A matter of semantics, maybe, but it wasn't exactly like the party elite was coming out_ America's National Public Radio also covered the press conference but treated it like the joke that it was. Bad move. More angry calls from outraged net users. NPR followed up the report with a more serious treatment and included an interview with Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean. Hoagland claims photos show Bean standing amid the ruins. On the NPR show, Bean denied seeing anything but moon rocks. Think anyone believes him?