Sadly, it’s possible for some people to profit from the ignorance of others. People who make programs suggesting the Moon landings were faked are acting in the same way as those who use trickery to take money from others.

In other words, there are dishonest people in the world.

CR Said:
>By “TV experts,” I presume (based on the context of the quote) that you mean the producers of the TV shows claiming that the moon landings were faked.

Actually, I think Varun was speaking about the rebuttal programs, such as the National Geographic show that Jay Windley participated in. To answer Varun, because it was a rebuttal to all the lunacy being promoted by the deniers.

Your argument seems to be that if it’s true then there isn’t a need to prove it. That misses the substatial point that there is a cadre of hoax promoters out there that are stirring up trouble (especially on the internet) promoting the idea that it was a hoax. These hoax promoters are getting larger audiences than ever before, and couple that with the fact that moon trips are not currently possible and the growing dissatisfaction with and distrust of the government in general and NASA in specific, and you will find that the belief in the hoax story is growing, especially among the young who weren’t present during the Apollo era.

Part of the problem is that some of the claims being presented are somewhat complex and require a certain amount of technical information to counter. Also, the promoters are slick and make their “questions” seem reasonable and convincing. The rebuttal programs are primarily aimed at helping audiences apply the same scrutiny to the hoax proponents’ claims as the hoax proponents would have them apply to the Apollo missions. Also, the effort is to help provide the technical information that the audience needs to correctly evaluate both sets of claims.

In short, the programs “proving” the moon landings are in response to the amount of attention placed on the programs promoting the hoax story.

Also there is a do-it-yourself option as well. Any of the pictures that is claimed to be faked can be created with just a digital camera.

No stars in the background? just try and go outside at night and see if you can take a photo of a bright object in the foreground and still capture some stars in the background.

Lines not parallel in photos? Take two sticks stick them in the ground put yourself in a position where the shadows point straight towards you and take a photo of that.

Identical backgrounds? Pick a nice background around two hundred meters away and put a stick in the ground a few meters in front of you. Take a photo first with the stick in the centre foreground. Next move a meter or two sideways and take another photo without the stick.

You can make up more tests yourself. Just don’t put flour all over the kitchen floor or you might get in trouble with your wife/mom like I did.

By “TV experts,” I presume (based on the context of the quote) that you mean the producers of the TV shows claiming that the moon landings were faked. The primary reason they make these shows is MONEY. Those that produce and sell vidoes of this nature are trying to get money from people. TV stations that air such shows are trying to get viewers to watch their station; increased ratings = increased profits. (Of course, as a side note, advertisers want their commercials airing during peak rating times, since their profits are likely to go up as a result.)
The bad part of all this is that such producers rely upon people’s ignorance in order to get their money. The worst part is that so many people are willfully ignorant, without even TRYING to understand reality, that such producers get away with it.

That (people’s ignorance, both willful and otherwise) was one of the points of the comic strip that started this thread. It’s funny because it’s true, but it’s also disturbing because it’s true.