(12-26-2021, 06:41 PM)BIAD Wrote: I have to agree that the entire situation is so outlandish that at first glance, should've been dismissed by a serious
news-outlet.
"Serious" news outlets of the day, just as today, were not above "playing up" an incident, or at times outright making them up, to improve circulation of their work. The only difference between then and now is that "circulation" has been replaced by "ratings".
In the 1880's, a number of fledgling newspapers in the US West created a flurry of reports involving "thunderbirds" or "pterodactyls" and others played up "airships". Some of the reports may have had some basis in actual events, but the majority of them were made up out of whole cloth, entirely to improve circulation of the newspapers. As I recall, the Tombstone Epitaph was noted for such shenanigans.
That's a game that has been played for as long as there have been newspapers. It's frustrating to researchers, because it serves to cloud the subject at hand and causes them to have to spend about as much time debunking false or exaggerated news reports as they spend seriously researching events.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’