Now, the hoax has taken a life of its own on the Web, with waves of naive people believing its silly made-up claims about scientists working in certain fields mysteriously disappearing.
The hoax has even made the HN front page.
Sigh.
Years later, I found out it was completely fake; the end credits even tell you it's fake (I missed that). I had a hard time believing anything after that realization.
* - Mermaids: The Body Found
"Seems like it would have been obvious given the subject."
Same thing for the mermaid show mentioned before.
"Or maybe, does your perception of the channel's reputation change the lens you view the content with?"
Channel reputation is the wrong word. Channel programming type would be more appropriate. This was back when those channels had educational programming and not the garbage shows they have today. It's more like finding a fiction book in the section that's supposed to be non-fiction.
* Conspiracy about missing/dead scientists from online forums to the White House https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47898228
* Comer and Burlison Seek Information on Missing Nuclear and Rocket Scientists https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877825
* FBI looks into dead or missing scientists tied to NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858246