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One such ardent adherent to the conspiracy, Sylvain Pimparé, took his concerns March 31 to the ombudsman over the fact the Radio-Canada website — the French counterpart to CBC.ca — asserts many times man has indeed walked on the moon.

His letter included links to a YouTube video that purportedly debunked the 1969 moon landing and argued that because stars are made of nuclear material, and there’s so much radiation in space, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin couldn’t possibly have left their mark on the lunar surface.

In response, Gendron asked Pierre Champoux, head of digital content on Radio-Canada.ca, to respond.

“The global scientific consensus is that American astronauts have actually walked on our planet’s only natural satellite,” Champoux said, adding “We are aware lots of theories about the moon landings circulate, as they do about September 11, 2001, global warming and Elvis Presley’s death.”

“Like all credible media, we reserve the right not to share those theories.”

But that wasn’t enough for Pimparé, who expressed his dissatisfaction with the response and presented the ombudsman with what he argued was contrary evidence.

That meant, under the rules of the complaint system at the public broadcaster, Gendron had to review it. His office fields dozens of complaints about content on the French broadcaster each year, and when a viewer asks for an appeal, publicly shares his findings unless there’s a privacy or other concern. As the newsletter 12:36 pointed out last week, that means he sat through three hours and thirty-nine minutes of that nonsense. Which led him to the conclusion that, “if Mr. Pimparé had taken the trouble to finish watching the purported journalistic investigation he presents as his only proof… he would have found an explicit refutation” of that very theory at the end of the lengthy film.

The ombudsman goes on to say, during the lengthy and complex Apollo project, six aircraft took off, visited the moon and returned to earth, concluding, that Radio-Canada did not violate its standards with its articles referencing the moon landing.

“I do not think I need to elaborate further on the subject.”