On the news today…

On the news today are numerous stories alleging press misconduct. There is the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop. And the story of whether Trump’s calling out of the election amounts to a Big Lie. Nothing today quite compares to the stories that were published about Charles Nungesser’s flight from Paris to New York. His flight predates Charles Lindbergh’s flight by a couple weeks in May 1927 from New York to Paris, but was for the same reason, to win the $25,000 prize offered for being the first to fly between those two destinations. Newspapers published stories of sightings of the Nungesser flight over Ireland, Nova Scotia, Portland, and Boston. A French newspaper reported Nungesser’s landing in New York and his purported first words. With each report people in France poured out into the street to celebrate. At the time newspapers published extra editions to sell newspapers with the exciting news. None of it was true, however. Some of it was retracted. The crowds in France which had gathered in the streets to hear the reports were crestfallen and angry. It is now thought that Nungesser crashed in Newfoundland. (In 2012, the French government asked the US Coast Guard to search their warehouses for parts of Nungesser’s plane supposedly found in Newfoundland.) Lindbergh is said to have contemplated the possibility of hostility from the French populace upon his landing. The preposterous claims made in 1927, make the controversial stories of today seem tame in comparison. As it turned out the French were as wildly enthusiastic for Lindbergh as they had been for Nungesser.