Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

380 reMeMberINg the SpaCe age
less than 25 percent of americans believing that the government would seek to
do right all or even a majority of the time by the early 1990s. 75
additionally, as time passed and more people were born and grew to
maturity since the last of the Moon missions had been completed in 1972,
youngsters became increasingly skeptical since they had no frsthand recollection
of apollo. evidence of that issue was found in a 2004 poll about attitudes toward
spacefight among americans. While polls had consistently shown that only
about six percent of the public as a whole questioned the Moon landings, and a
whopping 89 percent frmly believed in their reality, among americans between
18 and 24 years old “27% expressed doubts that NaSa went to the Moon,”
according to pollster Mary Lynne Dittmar in a 2004 study. Doubt is diferent
from denial, but it was a trend that seemed to be growing over time. 76
Major media sources, especially, fueled doubts. for example, folklorist
Linda Degh asserted that the 1978 fctional feature flm Capricorn One, in
which NaSa supposedly faked a landing on Mars, may have fostered greater
acceptance of the denials of the Moon landings. No question, the february
2001 airing of the fox special, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?,
changed the nature of the debate. In this instance a major network presented a
conspiracy scenario without any serious rebuttal that might have been ofered. 77
as USA Today reported in the aftermath of the “news special”:
according to fox and its respectfully interviewed “experts”—
a constellation of ludicrously marginal and utterly uncredentialed
“investigative journalists”—the united States grew so
eager to defeat the Soviets in the intensely competitive 1960s
space race that it faked all six apollo missions that purportedly
landed on the moon. Instead of exploring the lunar surface,
the american astronauts only tromped around a crude
movie set that was created by the plotters in the legendary
area 51 of the Nevada desert. 78
75. paul r. abramson, Political Attitudes in America (San francisco, Ca: W. h. freeman, 1983), p.
12. See also Seymour Martin Lipset and William Schneider, The Confdence Gap (New york,
Ny: free press, 1983).
76. Mary Lynne Dittmar, “building Constituencies for project Constellation: updates to the
Market Study of the Space exploration program,” presentation at building and Maintaining
the Constituency for Long-term Space exploration workshop, george Mason university,
fairfax, va, July 31-august 3, 2006; the gallop poll, “Did Men really Land on the Moon?”
february 15, 2001, available online at http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=1993&pg=1
(accessed June 26, 2007).
77. for a discussion of the claims made in this “documentary,” as well as rebuttal to it, see phil
plait,“fox tv and the apollo Moon hoax,” february 13, 2001, available online at http://www.
badastronomy.com (accessed october 14, 2002).
78. “faking a hoax,” USA Today,april 9, 2001.