This is an excellent read, if you're skipping to the comments for a recap, I suggest reconsidering checking out the article. It's a wonderful story of making th

This is an excellent read, if you're skipping to the comments for a recap, I suggest reconsidering checking out the article. It's a wonderful story of making things up, the reach of early mass media, and the effects of that reach on the wider public. The article mentions such a hoax would not have been possible before 1830 or so, because the technology wasn't around to spread information in such a way. They also point out that due to the presence of newsboys selling papers around New York City, nearly the entire city heard about the "lunar discoveries" around the same time, making it a shared experience. It reminds me of the way we receive information now. When stories hit, they hit everywhere at once, but also stagger out over time. You might see a story online first, then hear it on network or cable news later that evening. The next day, it's in print. You might discuss it on social media, in a comment section on a website, etc. Only to find yourself discussing it again when it's on TV in the evening with those close to you. It's a neat look at the power of mass media back when mass media was still budding on the vine, nearly 200 years ago. It only became more interesting when I began to consider the influence and power of modern mass media. --- p.s. To think that a group of clergymen had written to the falsely accredited astronomer to see if there was any way science might let them spread gospel to the lunar people, hah! I had a good laugh over that. p.p.s. I've always loved reading about hoaxes, thanks OP for sharing this link, this is why I use aggregators! Much appreciated, I'll check out the rest of the site after I've finished this one. p.p.p.s. I also found myself learning some new words while reading this. credulity, for example. --- Excuse the formatting, but I wanted to discuss this as well: >Yale College was alive with staunch supporters. The literati — students and professors, doctors in divinity and law — and all the rest of the reading community, looked daily for the arrival of the New York mail with unexampled avidity and implicit faith. Have you seen the accounts of Sir John Herschel's wonderful discoveries? Have you read the Sun? Have you heard the news of the man in the Moon? These were the questions that met you every where. It was the absorbing topic of the day. Nobody expressed or entertained a doubt as to the truth of the story. What a neat perspective on how this affected a college campus. It spread like a virus, infecting all those who came into contact with it, no one doubted or questioned the information, and all likely continued to spread it themselves as fact. It had to have become a game of Telephone at some point, wouldn't you think? As the information got further away from the "source" it seems like it would be susceptible to having details omitted, twisted, changed entirely or remembered incorrectly.