Its not just the BBC that loses tapes

One of the biggest acknowledged cultural tagedies in the UK was the wanton destruction of many video recordings taken in the 1960s and 70s. At one point the BBC was planning to wipe the tapes containing the original Monty Python series. Many episodes of Dr Who were lost. Light entertainment suffered particularly badly. Meanwhile every copy of the local news was preserved forever.

The BBC has long since acknowledged this as a blunder and great effort has gone into tracking down and restoring old footage. Regular appeals are made to the public who might have some old recordings. The BBC has even gone to the lengths of developing technology that allows colour from a videotape to be readded to a black and white tape.

So what to make of the news that NASA has lost track of the footage of the moon landings? Did someone miss the historical significance.