[Vision2020] Oregon Exploding Whale . . . and The Daily News

[Saundra Lund]

Visionaires:

Did y'all know our local newspaper (The Moscow-Pullman Daily News) is
mentioned in Snopes as having played a role in the revival of the infamous
ODOT's exploding whale story?

It's a long story about why the discussion came up this AM, but I got a
chuckle from reading this:

"The flying blubber incident survives today as an Oregon legend, kept alive
by a film-video of the event that has found its way to an east coast
think-tank.  Last spring, a vivid description of the whale blowup, titled
The Farside Comes To Life In Oregon, appeared on subscriber electronic
bulletin boards nationwide.  Its author describes in detail his video copy
of a TV film news report of the day by (Portland, Ore.) Channel 2's Paul
Linnman.  But the electronic bulletin board story left out one important
detail -- the fact that the blubber blowup happened a quarter-century ago.
To top it off, a columnist for the Daily News in Moscow-Pullman,
(Idaho-Wash.), reprinted the electronic bulletin board article
word-for-word, oblivious to the age of the story."
http://www.snopes.com/critters/disposal/whale.asp



Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke