Ah, the vegetable that thinks vast thoughts! With a great big eye stalk! This was the cover of The Salt Lake Tribune on October 13, 1912. They didn't exactly present it as the truth, but as a theory.
The Giant All-Seeing Eyeball was hoisted high in the Tribune, given supposed life by the very highly capable astronomer W.W. Campbell (1862-1930, with his biography here at the National Academy of Science), who is quoted by the paper as being the source of this preposterous theory. Campbell was not pleased by this--not at all. And I can well imagine why.