November/December 2009 Issue

Conspiracy Watch: America’s Evilest Airport

Denver’s airport of doom.

Peter Hoey

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The latest installment in our ongoing collection of wonderfully weird (and totally whack) conspiracy theories. Find more Conspiracy Watch entries here.

THE CONSPIRACY: Denver International Airport is the secret hub of the New World Order. Opened in 1995, DIA has six runways that form a swastika, and lots of underground space—not for moving luggage, but for setting up concentration camps. Its terminals are decorated with Masonic symbols and murals that hint at a coming genocide and, for good measure, the Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012.

THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS: Greg Ericson, who runs the website Free Press International, has been on the case for years, hounding DIA for “refusing to translate the writings that are all over the airport” and for the names of who’s on its utopian-sounding New World Airport Commission. YouTube videos such as Denver Airport Conspiracy Theory have also stirred up interest in the facility, and VigilantCitizen.com has added it to its list of “Sinister Sites.” There’s even an 11,500-person Facebook group dedicated to getting rid of the airport’s unpopular, allegedly cursed   statue, a.k.a. the Horse of the Apocalypse or Bluecifer.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON EARTH: An exasperated DIA flack has advised Ericson to “select whatever explanation you choose to believe” for the complex’s supposed secrets. And don’t expect an apocalypse involving major airlines to arrive on time.

Kookiness Rating: Tin Foil Hat SmallTin Foil Hat SmallTin Foil Hat SmallTin Foil Hat SmallTin Foil Hat Small (1=maybe they’re on to something, 5=break out the tinfoil hat!)

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We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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