Post Quiz: Official Denials - Answers
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2018
Even professional journalists get confused these days. Hard to tell the lies without a scorecard.
Official Denials: Answers
Looked simple, right? Here are the answers.
- What official statement did the US's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issue in 2012 in response to all the aggro caused by the Animal Planet special? 'Mermaids aren't real.' If you see one, let us know.
- What famous statement of denial was made in 1973 by then-president of the US Richard Nixon? 'I am not a crook.' Well…
- What did 19th-century abolitionist and reformer Henry Ward Beecher first deny, then have to admit to? That he had an affair with his business partner's wife.
- What was the name of satirist Al Franken's book about his political opponents? Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.
- What did politician Al Franken officially deny in 2017? That he had sexually harassed women. (He did apologise for behaviour that offended people.)
- What claim by radio host Alex Jones was NASA forced to officially deny in June 2017? That there was a colony of slave children on Mars. We are not making this up.
- What persistent rumour about his family history dogged Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime? That either Lincoln, or his mother, or both of them, were illegitimate. Nobody has ever settled that question completely.
- What accusation did Winston Churchill deny during his campaign in 1951? That he was a warmonger who would be likely to start World War III.
- What weird claim did Franklin Roosevelt once make about Haiti – and then try to deny he'd said? That he had personally written Haiti's constitution. (He didn't claim to have invented the internet.)
- What did the US military officially deny had happened in New Mexico in 1947? A UFO crash-landed at Roswell. They said it was a weather balloon. But that's only what they want you to believe…
Abraham Lincoln's friend William Herndon had some secret notebooks, where he collected all the rumours and salacious stories about Lincoln that he couldn't confirm or deny. Fake news goes back a long way.
