"War of the Worlds"

http://www.psmag.com/culture/halloween-horrors-and-common-sense-24666/

Researching the 1938 radio drama "War of the Worlds,"led me to an abundance of outlets, including the original broadcast and many databases and websites that captured America’s original coverage of the broadcast. There was plenty of news detailing the aftermath and public reaction to hearing the radio drama. It was only meant to be a tribute to the classic H.G. Wells novel of the same title. The drama has become such a staple of American history that it wasn’t too difficult to find very interesting stories and details of the events resulting from the broadcast.

From my findings, the coverage of the original “War of the Worlds” broadcast was overwhelmingly similar across all mediums. The news coverage seemed to all have a sense of disaster similar to how media cover a shooting nowadays. Obviously a less terrorizing event but the similarity in the urgent language brought me to today’s coverage of disasters and tragedies. The New York Times, most notably, as well as other news departments, received phone calls the night of Oct 31, 1938, from citizens seeking evacuation routes and police tips on safe areas to stay for the night.

time.com

Despite the broadcast occasionally reminding listeners that it was indeed a dramatization, many fled and spread panic without seeking confirmation from the authorities. The New York Times article, from the next day’s paper, also referenced a woman with her two children carrying clothes in an attempt to flee the city before being persuaded by police to remain. Accidents, suicide attempts and overall panic spread through parts of New York and New Jersey before order was brought back to the cities.

Although the news articles did not cite the producer, Orson Welles, as a criminal, coverage of the widespread panic indirectly made him one. Iowa Senator Clyde Herring even said that he planned to introduce a censorship bill to prevent another incident from happening.

“Controlling just such abuses as was heard over the radio tonight”, said Herring. Herring also stated that broadcasts such as this one were the reason government needs to control the airwaves.

In a press conference with the media Welles condescendingly apologized for the chaos caused from the broadcast. The apology came only after Welles, reportedly, made a snide remark that it was obvious to him and his producers that such a story could only be fantasy but apologized for others who thought such a ridiculous scenario could play out in reality.

Most of the articles mentioned the FCC getting involved in an investigation, but ultimately nothing turned up as they didn’t want to impede on radio’s ability to play dramatized stories on the airwaves.

CBS also released a statement the next day in the New York Times saying that the radio broadcast was as faithful to the novel and just replaced English locations with more familiar American ones. The statement also reminded the public that the falsity of the program was mentioned four times throughout the broadcast.

In the end, “War of the Worlds” was such a landmark event in news that the coverage of the resulting chaos was universally similar. News organizations acknowledged in falsehood but chose to still cover its aftermath with the language and urgency of an actual disaster.