[Shotimes] OT Chernobyl hoax

[Paul L Fisher]

How do we know which story is true, the original or the one 'refuting' it?


Paul L Fisher

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-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Mike.Wojton@us.o-i.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 3:44 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: [Shotimes] OT Chernobyl hoax

Does anybody remember the web site about the woman who rode her
motorcycle through Chernobyl?  It was really kinda creepy, huh?  It
was also a hoax.  I was just sent the following.  What some people
won't do for a little fame and glory...


Mike Wojton
Toledo, Ohio

-'95 White MTX
   '96 Brake Upgrade

"Avoid the clap." - Jimmy Dugan


> from http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=8951
> 
> ############################################################
> 
> Chornobyl "Ghost Town" story is a fabrication TOP <#top>
> 
> e-POSHTA subscriber Mary Mycio writes:
> 
> I am based in Kyiv and writing a book about Chornobyl for the Joseph 
Henry Press. Several sources 
> have sent me links to the "Ghost Town" photo essay included in the last 
e-POSHTA mailing. Though 
> it was full of factual errors, I did find the notion of lone young woman 
riding her motorcycle 
> through the evacuated Zone of Alienation to be intriguing and asked 
about it when I visited there 
> two days ago.
> 
> I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not 
travel around the zone by
> herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is 
wandering around alone, without
> an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her 
husband and a friend. 
> They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv.
> 
> She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They organized their trip 
through a Kyiv travel 
> agency and the administration of the Chornobyl zone (and not her 
father). They were given the same
> standard excursion that most Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web 
site appeared, Zone 
> Administration personnel were in an uproar over who approved a 
motorcycle trip in the zone. When 
> it turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention, they were even 
less pleased about this 
> fantasy Web site.
> 
> Because of those problems, Elena and her husband have changed the Web 
site and the story 
> considerably in the last few days. Earlier versions of the narrative 
lied more blatantly about 
> Elena taking lone motorcycle trips in the zone. That has been changed to 
merely suggest that she 
> does so, which is still misleading.
> 
> I would not normally bother to correct someone's silly Chornobyl 
fantasy. Indeed, correcting all 
> the factual errors and falsehoods in "Ghost Town" would consume as much 
space as the Web site 
> itself. But the motorcycle story was such an outrageous fiction that I 
thought the readers of e-
> Poshta should know.
> 
> 1. Mary Mycio, J.D. 
> 2. Legal Program Director 
> 3. IREX U-Media 
> 4. Shota Rustaveli St. 38b, No. 16 
> 5. Kyiv 01023, Ukraine 
> 6. Tel: (380-44) 220-6374, 228-6147 Fax: 227-7543
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