Every History of American journalistic hoaxing properly begins with the celebrated moon hoax which "made" the New York Sun of Benjamin Day. It consisted of a series of articles, allegedly reprinted from the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science, relating to the discovery of life on the moon by Sir John Herschel, eminent British astronomer, who some time before had gone to the Cape of Good Hope to try out a new type of powerful telescope.
The first installment of the moon hoax appeared in the August 25, 1835 edition of the New York Sun on page two, under the heading "Celestial Discoveries." The brief passage read in part as follows: "We have just learnt (sic) from an eminent publisher in this city that Sir John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope, has made some astronomical discoveries of the most wonderful description, by means of an immense telescope of an entirely new principle."
As a mater of fact, Herschel had gone to South Africa in January, 1834, and set up an observatory at Cape Town. Three columns of the first page of the Sun contained a story credited to the Edinburgh Journal of Science. (That publication had suspended some time before.) There was a great deal of matter about the importance of Herschel's impending announcement of his discoveries.
On August 25, the Sun ran four columns describing what Sir John had been able to see, looking at the moon through his telescope.
Read Full Article »