diff --git a/hemlock/netnews.lisp b/hemlock/netnews.lisp
index 8d6cb13a577cfcb8d02a16483fb7f73a734c95c0..a98aafbf063e8faaf0ded4cd336686f55abde29c 100644
--- a/hemlock/netnews.lisp
+++ b/hemlock/netnews.lisp
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@
   post-buffer
   ;; This is need because we want to display what message this is in the
   ;; modeline field of a message buffer.
-  (message-number :type (or null fixnum))
+  (message-number nil :type (or null fixnum))
   ;;  Set to T when we do not want to reuse this buffer.
   keep-p)