Before we talk about the moon hoax, itself, let’s start out giving our listeners some context of what journalism was like in the 1830s.īrian Thornton: Well, it’s really a dividing point in 1833 when the penny press was created by Benjamin Day.Īnd so up until 1833, I would say that journalism was pretty staid, pretty traditional, conservative, primarily for wealthy people and you had to buy a subscription a year in advance and it cost something like the equivalent of that time of $50, which is the equivalent today of like $1,000. It was actual fake news long before the current use of the phrase and just one of many hoaxes in journalism history to cause a stir.īrian Thornton of the University of North Florida joins us today to talk about his article, “The Moon Hoax: Debates about Ethics in 1835 New York Newspapers”.īrian, welcome to the show. Readers were dazzled with tales that he had seen bison, bat people, and unicorns on the moon. The moon hoax of 1835 appeared in the New York Sun and told amazing stories about the scientific discoveries of a famous astronomer at the time. It was once called the greatest fake of our journalistic history by historian Frank Luther Mott.
This episode is sponsored by Taylor & Francis, the publisher of our academic journal, Journalism History. Transcripts of the show are available at /podcast.
MARK TWAIN LETTERS FROM THE MOON PROFESSIONAL
Teri Finneman: And together, we are professional media historians guiding you through our own drafts of history. Ken Ward: And I’m Ken Ward, and I research the journalism history of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Nick Hirshon: And I’m Nick Hirshon, and I research the history of New York sports. I’m Teri Finneman, and I research media coverage of women in politics. Teri Finneman: Welcome to Journalism History, a podcast that rips out the pages of your history books to reexamine the stories you thought you knew and the ones you were never told. Brian Thornton: Today, I think if a hoax were revealed, everyone would – would be angry, but back then, they seemed to laugh it off and kind of enjoy it.
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