5 ms·

Just like War of the Worlds in 1938?

• jacquesm 10y ago
  That was fairly clearly fiction and the panic was exaggerated.
  • dmix 10y ago
    You are underestimating the average person. That radio broadcast did create a response from a small subset. But that response was from an insignificant, poorly informed, population and was quickly tempered with a minimal amount of effort. I highly doubt it created a 'mass panic' with serious consequence, as if the average person believed Aliens were attacking earth due to a radio broadcast... The fact it was false was immediately spreading among the newspapers: > They immediately left the theatre, and standing on the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street, they read the lighted bulletin that circled the New York Times building: ORSON WELLES CAUSES PANIC. This type of thinking that we need to protect people has been causing comedians to needlessly apologizing for ultimately harmless art on a weekly basis. There's a big difference between a piece of humour/fiction crossing the intended audience into people who miss the obvious humour/fiction and take it seriously... and actual malice.
    • jacquesm 10y ago
      I meant it was exaggerated compared to how many people actually panicked. Playing a fake advent of WWIII in a coffeeshop as if it is real to unsuspecting people might cause a different response though.