I get email.
For example, I got an email recently from a TV station asking if I could be a part of a piece they are doing on the Apollo Moon landings. Great, I thought! Then I read what they wrote more carefully, and it looked like they thought that I was a Moon Hoax believer! I replied to the email, telling them I would be happy to do an interview, but that I am a supporter of Apollo and that I know the landings were real. They replied back, thanking me, and asking when I could do it. OK, cool, I thought, and replied with a suggested date or two.
They then replied back a second time, saying that after reading my email more carefully, they now understood that I represented reality. However, they didn’t want that; they wanted to talk to a hoax proponent. They also went on to say that all the ones they had contacted only wanted to sell videos or books, and did I know of any others they could talk to?
After I stopped laughing, I replied back:
I hope you don’t find this to be rude, but I would prefer not to help in that capacity. I have spent a decade now fighting people like that, and I have no desire to help them find time on the air. They get far too much attention as it is. I will be happy to help debunk them, but not help them propagate their ideas.
I’m still chuckling about it, though maybe just a bit wryly.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Phil,
have them e-mail me..I make up something really goofy that shows we didn’t go and they would believe it..I’ll split the fee 50/50 with you..
so..mmm..
what could I make up to say why we didn’t go back???
all serriousness..
how did they think YOU DIDN’T believe we went back…maybe you weren’t clear enough on your web site
cheers
jb
June 9th, 2008 at 10:16 am
What TV station was it? anything you can mention on here without getting sued? Was it something national? I’ve noticed the Discovery Channel has been falling for woo lately: on a recent special blatantly cashing on on the new Indian Jones movie, they had a show called, “The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls”, and they gave WAAAAY too much time to Richard Hoagland…..enough to make me want to puke.
Anyway, I REALLY hope it wasn’t a station with some national/international reach.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I just hope that the reason they wanted a hoax theorist was because they already found scads of informed realists, and not because they wanted to spread the hoax belief. I do have to wonder if all mainstream media think that the average person likes ridiculous conspiracy theories and that there’s no market for curbstomping on such theories.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Oh, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess it was a local network affiliate looking to fill time on their “news” broadcast.
You MAY never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Mos Eisley. But you WILL never find a more eager hive of woo and credulity than local TV news.
I’m just sayin’.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am
“They also went on to say that all the ones they had contacted only wanted to sell videos or books, and did I know of any others they could talk to?”
Ah ha. To the root of all evil. Money. I’m sure that some really do believe, but I’d bet a lot are driven by money.
Maybe you should have given them Joe Rogan’s name.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:49 am
They really did their research on that one
June 9th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Not surprised, not one little bit. At least they didn’t misquote you to make it sound like you’re an Apollo hoax believer. The media has been known to pull such monkeyshines from time to time.
Ah well. We’re nearing the silly season, when all sorts of weirdness hits the news. Probably one of these fluff stories.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I won’t say who it is, but it wasn’t local.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am
If I bang my head on my desktop for 5 minutes, will all the anti-science, moonhoax, st00pid people go away?
June 9th, 2008 at 10:56 am
You shouldn’t have said anything and just had them do the interview. No doubt their reactions when they figured out their mistake would be awesome to watch.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
It comes down to the pseudo-balance that the Media likes to portray. It’s as though no matter how stupid and irrational a belief, there has to be one person in support of it, therefore, throwing the ideas together apparently makes for a better discussion. When will these bastards ever learn that both sides are necessarily correct.
Isn’t it Ironic that when this Iraq war started, nobody in the media was interviewed countering the false rhetoric that was so prevalent. Where was the opposition when it counted? We get two sides of a grossly unbalanced argument, but when it counts, we’re only fed one tired response after another. Do we ever hear the media criticize Israel for possessing nuclear weapons while holding Iran to an electron microscope? Do we ever hear pundits really criticizing our two party political system? Where were the people telling Americans that their constant purchase of gas guzzling vehicles was aiding terrorism? Ultimately, the answer to these questions isn’t really mysterious, it’s just business. The corporations and lobby groups that support big oil, arms deals, and the general status quo would never allow a truly independent voice.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
The *love* of money is the root of all evil. Attributed to Paul the Apostle.
Money itself has no intrinsic morality except to ideologues.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:02 am
*the last sentence of the first paragraph was supposed to say aren’t.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am
PP,
You do that, and you end up on the cutting room floor. But, maybe you’ll get a trip to some studio or other out of it.
I think you did exactly the right thing. Don’t help promote any more of this urban legend crap. It’s bad enough that the History Channel is showing UFO Stories and Monster Quest… You would have thought that progreamming execs would have noticed that “Mythbusters” has made tearing down stuff like this better entertainment than supporting it.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:10 am
>they had a show called, “The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls”, and they >gave WAAAAY too much time to Richard Hoagland…
I watched this show mostly out of amusement. Hoagland states several times that the Apollo Astronauts brought back a skull FROM THE MOON! I guess that shoots a big fat hole in all of his moon hoax claims! I suggest you buy a copy and queue it up to that point for the next time you debate him.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Look on the bright side. It sounds like they want to find a proponent of the Moon hoax theory, who is NOT out to sell their own book or video.
They probably won’t find one, and maybe they’ll decide to drop the idea.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am
The raving, gibbering, slavering lunatic shambling down the sidewalk frightening the public will always get more than their share of attention compared to the calm, rational folks going about their business not bothering anybody.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I wish you’d managed to get on there and voice reality. But that would only work if they’d broadcast live, because really, you’d end up a pile of bytes on the cutting room floor.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
They will probably say that noted astronomer Dr Phil Plait REFUSED to comment on the hoax theory thereby propagating the whole nasa-cover-up-conspiracy-hokum-load-of-twaddle! Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. SHEESH the media make me tired.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Good work sticking to your guns, Phil. We appreciate all the hard work you do!
June 9th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I recently saw a video – a local TV production – where three Astronomy Club members were interviewed. They got to talk about light pollution in the area, what there is to see, how they go about it. IMO, the clueless interviewer was not a detraction. It was a great half hour.
If there is a shame to this story, it’s that the interviewer or staff, or whoever makes these decisions, probably doesn’t know that local astronomy buffs could fill a half hour show weekly forever, without repeating content.
Kinda like astronomy cast – half hour a week, but possibly without the PhD. I belong to two clubs, and one does two hour long talks a month. Most don’t get to do two talks in a year, because there are only 23 talks a year. One guy alone has a backlog of more than a dozen written talks. The other club, with non-overlapping content, does another hour+ talk a month or two slightly shorter ones.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Bravo sir!!!
June 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Pleaaase tell me it was FOX.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Indeed – please advise regarding the identity of the station and its network affiliation.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Just in time for the re-make of Capricorn One!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Is it too optimistic to hope it was in reality a documentary about the pathology of denialists and other nuts?
June 9th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Maakuz
If I bang my head on my desktop for 5 minutes, will all the anti-science, moonhoax, st00pid people go away?
Yes, until you become conscious again…
J/P=?
June 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
@BWK: Hoagland doesn’t claim we did not land on the moon, quite the contrary. Making false claims does not help the cause. You have to actually listen to those people before you can start refuting their claims. Anything else plays straight into their hands.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Here’s the offending Lunar Skull:
http://z.about.com/d/paranormal/1/0/2/O/1/moon-skull.jpg
June 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
AH you missed a trick there. You could have invented a sock puppet and recommended them.. then mid interview you could have had a revelation
“you know what? you’re right! I have been wasting my life, OBVIOUSLY the moon landings were real! Wow.. How could I have been so stupid?”.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Just imagine the fun you could have had if you had said yes. They might have set you up to debate with a skeptic who believes we did land on the moon. That wouls have been great television!
“I believe men landed on the moon in 1969″
“Me too”.
Dead air.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Excellent reply Phil! There’s already too much of that BS on the internets and tv without adding to it. Bleh.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Watching all that nonsense is one of my not-so-guilty pleasures – because in between ROFLingMAO, they’re jam-packed with teachable moments. I get a perverse kick out of giving my TV-watching buddies the play-by-play on why it’s a steaming sack of $#!+.
My favorite moment from the crystal skulls special was when one woman revealed that the skull she got from the Tibetan healer had told her its name was Max. WTF? Frakkin’ MAX???[insert 67 interrobangs here] Not Dharmachugaluganam or something like that?
OTOH, the History Channel deserves credit this time for producing a good show about how Indiana Jones stacks up to real archaeology.
No, but you will see stars. Not the most comfortable (or accurate) way to do an astronomical observation though.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I salute you, sir. Keep it REAL.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Oops. I just got a telepathic message from Max. He wants everyone to know that I got his name wrong.
It’s really Dharmanomnomnom. And he sends this message:
im in ur tv, devourin teh braynz ov teh credjulus. teh st00pid. iz teh yummy. bestest part is: teh moar u nom, teh moar der is lololol!
June 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
@Some Canadian Skeptic
Discovery Channel Canada is owned by CTV and has very little connection to the real Discovery channel the show you mentioned was made by the SciFi channel.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I’m a little surprised that they recognized that the proponents were just trying to sell books and videos. But I wish they’d go on the air and point that out.
June 9th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Moon hoax proponents need to take another look at all the various video footage that was taken on the moon. I’ve always maintained that if the landings had been faked, the special effects would have been much cooler.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
For more chuckling, click here: http://stuffucanuse.com/fake_moon_landings/moon_landings.htm
June 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
The thing I took from this post was that people don’t read their email carefully the first time. =)
June 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
/2Madge – The wording used in my country would be “We contacted a noted astronomer for his input, but he declined to comment.”
September 19th, 2009 at 10:33 am
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