In 1938, on the day before Halloween, thousands of Americans tuned into CBS radio stations and heard what seemed to be panicked news coverage of a gory martian invasion. Problem is, they'd missed the opening credits: it was actually a documentary-style radio drama, directed by and starring actor Orson Welles, that was adapted from the H.G. Wells science fiction novel The War of the Worlds.
The New York Times and other newspapers reported the aftermath the next day. Thousands of Americans believed they were under attack; some had even fled their homes, and police stations were swamped with frantic inquiries from concerned citizens.
Read on for some more examples of such misunderstandings, hoaxes gone awry and embarrassing media misinformation.
Captions by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News.com staff writer.
Photo by The New York Times archives
Caption by Michelle Meyers
