Skeptic: Fox's Flapdoodle; June 2001; Scientific American Magazine; by Michael Shermer; 1 Page(s)

The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather occasionally expressed from behind the shield of free speech. It is a cost worth bearing, but it does become exasperating, as when the Fox Broadcasting Company aired its highly advertised special "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" NASA, viewers were told, faked the Apollo missions on a movie set.

Such flummery should not warrant a response, but in a free society, skeptics are the watchdogs against irrationalism-the consumer advocates of ideas. Debunking is not simply the divestment of bunk; its utility is in offering a better alternative, along with a lesson on how thinking goes wrong. The Fox show is a case study, starting with its disclaimer: "The following program deals with a controversial subject. The theories expressed are not the only possible explanation. Viewers are invited to make a judgment based on all available information." That information, of course, was not provided, so let's refute Fox's argument point by point in case the statistic at the top of the show-that 20 percent of Americans believe we never went to the moon-is accurate.