Peary declared Polar winner An interesting apology for being duped by Cook. The Scientific American had the wool figuratively pulled over their eyes just as readily as the rest of the public did. Absolute and final rejection of Cook and his phony claim. So if this "polar controversy" was over by December, 1909 why are some fringe historians still trying to destroy Peary 90 years later? The answer to that question reveals a great deal about the motives of supposedly "rational" human beings.