Comments on: Could the 'War of the Worlds' scare happen today?

In 1938, a Halloween-themed radio broadcast sent Americans into panic over a fictional martian invasion. A lot's changed since then.
Photos: Hoaxes, mess-ups and pranks--oh my

[ljkiii]

It Already Has: "Global Warming"!

If Al Gore can get a Nobel Prize for a movie based on a slide show which in turn is pure fiction, then Orson Welles should get a prize posthumously. George Lucas should get one for warning us about the evil galactic empire......

[jelloburn]

What's it like...

living with your head stuck in the sand? Probably pretty peaceful
when you probably also believe that evolution doesn't exist, and
the War in Iraq is about Democracy and spreading "Freedom"

I assume you know where the WMDs are that Iraq was hiding...

[eyenine]

umm...

"If Al Gore can get a Nobel Prize for a movie based on a slide show which in turn is pure fiction"

you know global warming.. is real.. right? it is no longer a debate. if you do debate it, you are an idiot. so every reputable scientist says. the part thats up for debate is 'are we the cause of it', not 'is it real'.

way to keep up with the facts

[jorvis]

Here's proof...

...that (thanks to the internet) we'll never run short on our supply of morons who will believe whatever suits their small minds best.

[drewbyh]

moron

There are so many things that could be said about your post but the one thing that sums it up best is moron. That being, "a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment."

[JohnMcGrew]

Damn, you beat me to it.

"Global Warming" was the 1st thing I thought of. In 100 years or so when the history of this period is objectively written, "Global Warming" will go down as the "scam of the century".

[drjoewebb]

It Certainly Has!

The big difference though is the the global warming thing is done through constant repetition. Where "War of the Worlds" relied on a large portion of the audience not hearing the opening of the show because they were tuned in elsewhere, the global warming scare relies on constant repetition in multiple media for its "success." Welles only had one shot at this, and it was, for the most part, accidental.

[adamopolis]

Lesson One

Can you say "Hurricane Katrina"? Excellent! We'll continue with Lesson Two tomorrow.

[Lee in San Diego]

9/11

9/11 has a lot of people paranoid, they are ripe for being Wellesed.

[pritchet1]

Want "scary"?

Try replacing the dollar with the Amero, combining the North
American continent as Mexamericanada and the loss of being an
independent nation under the New World Order and the unraveling
of the US Constitution. Or the new religion of environmentalism. Or
the continuation of the worldwide Recession since February,
possibly going into a Depression of 2008. Any or all of the above.
THAT's scary. ;^)

[harriscjbb]

speaking of depression

now I'm depressed.

What ever happened to "One Nation"? (I personally agree with the "Under God" part too)

Our founders didn't intend for us to be a nation of nations, but one nation of fairly independent states.

I'm sure the founders of this great country are turning over in their graves!

[WJeansonne]

Saddam was the "W" "M" "D"

Here murdered tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. If that's not a "weapon" of mass desctruction, I don't know what is!

[cybervigilante]

Change the letters

There are leaders in Africa and South America who have killed many more people than Saddam. Why didn't we "liberate" them? Oh, because it's not W-M-D. It's O-I-L.

[The_Decider]

And who bought Saddam weapons, including chemical weapons?

Oh yeah, the US under the insane "leadership" of Ronnie Reagan.

Guess who funded and trained Bin Laden. Yup, our pal Ronnie

[gregmar]

Not quite but close

Todays example is called MRSA. The brain-eating amoeba is probably more dangerous, but it triggers the skepticism factor. The MRSA scare has been fed by years warnings about the coming superbug. Many people seem to think it has arrived. Schools are closed for cleaning. Students are removed from school. No screaming in the streets - yet.

[Steve Jordan]

"Wellesed" in 1980s: "NBC Special Report"

In the early 1980s, NBC ran a 2-hour docudrama called "Special Report," about a group of terrorists with a home-made atomic bomb who took over the naval base in Charleston SC with demands. At the end of the broadcast, a badly-executed attempt to rush them resulted in the bomb going off, resulting in the evacuation of Charleston and radiation warnings over the area for years to come.

Despite warnings at the beginning and end of every segment (with commercials in-between)... despite the fact that the drama took place over 2-1/2 days, not 2 hours... and despite the appearance of numerous regularly working character actors, and an actor as anchor who was at the time starring in St. Elsewhere, one of the most popular and top-rated series of the time... phone lines were swamped that night by concerned citizens trying to verify their friends' and relatives' whereabouts, or to get in touch with government leaders and authorities, and groups began to organize aid!

So, sure, a Wellesian scare could happen again. People in America really are capable of being that dim.

[Tomcat Adam]

No...

it just isn't possible. There's just too many places to get the news on TV.

[jezzur]

I agree - there are many dim people

The common thread between this 80s one and the war of the worlds broadcast is that the radio was a prominent medium that people relied upon for news and Welles used that perfectly.

In the 80s one it wasn't that people had a limited range of media sources - just that they were happy to believe something to be true after watching just one of them.

At present I see many comments, from Americans in particular, which suggest a limited scope of knowledge and thought about various matters. Perhaps this is because they only watch one media source, perhaps it is a lack of education, perhaps it is just that many people just don't actively think or seek information or clarification.

Think of a man driving in unfamiliar territory. He will never ask directions out of some strange sense of pride. The phrase 'healthy scepticism' arose for a reason - it is about whether you have a tendency towards belief or disbelief. I believe that disbelief is a better starting point because beliefs, especially strongly held ones, can be barriers to further thinking and learning. Another problem is that people strive so hard to belong that a flock of people will behave irrationally with not one having the balls to say - hang on, we're going crazy here.

There is an ovbious example of people's strange willingness to believe and belong which i won't mention. There are many examples of principle going out the window due to hysteria too.

[torayume]

Are you kidding?

We're at war, and thousands are dead, over imaginary weapons of mass destruction and you ask if this could happen again? It happens every day! It probably couldn't happen over the radio, but online....oh, certainly. Easy.

[skrubol]

Boston was different

There is a difference between mass hysteria and a few government agencies panicking. The public didn't have much of a reaction to the mooninite incident. Of course there was a major difference in scale as well.

[punterjoe]

No cure for paranoid gullability

We live in an age where it's a better career move to shut down a city over a toy, than it is to take the risk - however farfetched - that the worst-case scenario could happen and would be blamed on you.
...Now, take off your shoes & get in that line.

[Stating]

We Had Roswell

We had Roswell, but in that case it was the opposite. There was something there, but it was spun as there NOT being something there.

[Michael00360]

Not to sure

Even though we have gotten a little smarter (maybe), we are still pretty easy to fool. And with news sites and TV news such as CNN, Fox, and others, I don't think it would take much to scare the daylights out of everyone.

[Rita McKee]

oh, puh-leeze

So you think a WOTW-like scare couldn't happen? HAH - it already has.

Iraq has been one very long script written by those whose major tool has been fear.

Hopefully, Grovers Corners will wake up very soon.

[Anome]

Could it happen again?

Actually, there's some serious debate about whether it actually happened at the time. It seems that the "panic" was actually minimal (not actually non-existant), it's just the reporting of the events blew the story out of proportion. (And since then, as the linguistics professor said, "The tale grew in the telling".)

In other words, it was mostly a media beat-up. Something that happens with an alarming regularity.

[ferretboy88]

Stick to the tech talk Cnet

Talk about laptops and tvs.

[ralfthedog]

It is all about boredom. and fun!

People who are stuck in there boring little lives will believe anything just for a bit of excitement. This is not a bad thing, it is just an extension of the games we played as kids.

I would think that 9 out of 10 of the people who fell for the War of the Worlds scare knew deep down that it was not true. I think that 9 out of 10 of the people if they were honest would admit that it was a great deal of fun.

Bring on the aliens!

[enovikoff]

It is happening... now

We are a nation of fearful people, easily manipulated by people who want to use fear to control us - and they know it works, repeatedly. The War of the Worlds was a dress rehearsal for the fear drama that we live daily now. We're in Iraq because of that fear. We have our government wiretapping our every communication because of that fear. We have thrown out Habeas Corpus because of fear. We have accepted someone who was not elected president as our president twice in a row, because of fear. Fear is the dark underbelly of our overpriveleged lifestyle, and anyone who tells us that we are about to lose it has our hearts in his hands. "Give me liberty or give me death" the famous quote goes. We've chosen the opposite: let us keep our unfulfilled lives and we'll happily give up our liberties.

[Sparky650]

It still happens every day.

People fear the word terrorist enough to let the government take control in places they have no business dwelling in and destroying the things they wish to protect.

Religious groups fear gays and other religions enough to fight for eliminating what they do no believe for fear alone.

People put up with police brutality for fear they'll be targeted next.

Fear and manipulation about Marijuana started because of large companies not liking competition from hemp products.

Fear over natural weight loss drugs such as Ephedra led to it's removal because of a few deaths (mostly abuse) while FDA approved Phen-Phen caused more deaths and destruction.

This scares will continue as long as man does not sit down and not only hear another's point of view but try to understand it. Replace fear with understanding is never a bad thing.

[johngos]

It happened more than once

We should not be so smug that it happened long ago in 1938, it happened again in 1944, 1949 and most recently in 1968! Check out the stories at http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/radiohome.htm

[JohnMcGrew]

Did you know...

...that the temperatures in the Antarctic have been getting colder, not warmer and the ice pack thicker for the last 30 years?

Meanwhile, average temperatures in Greenland have been falling at the rather steep rate of 2.2 degrees Celsius since 1987. Summer temperatures, which are most relevant to Greenland ice sheet melting rates, do not show any persistent increase during the last fifty years.

You are right in that there's little debate over "global warming" when you're free to cherry pick your data they way the "warmongers" do.

[The_Decider]

The problem is not

That most Americans truly are stupid(that is a huge problem though).

The problem is that the US government and the media have trained the US population to be fearful rats.

[ceoballmer]

Too Many Fakes Today!

People just don't tell the truth anymore!
http://****************.blogspot.com