War of the Worlds October 30, 1938 Fake Alien Invasion Broadcast

War of the Worlds October 30, 1938 Fake Alien Invasion Broadcast

The 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast which created "accidental" and "unfortunate" panic and hysteria throughout the United States. Listeners tuned in to what they thought was a real invasion by Martians. The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins, which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that, the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a sustaining show (it ran without commercial breaks), adding to the program's realism. It was funded indirectly by the Rockefeller Foundation through the The Princeton Radio Project, and guided at every stage by members of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Actor Orson Welles, the creator of the program and the "news announcer" of this infamous broadcast, later apologized for the hysteria this radio show created. The Princeton University Radio Project, under supervision of psychologist Dr. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Frank Stanton (later head of CBS Radio and Television) and Dr. Hadley Cantril, hired Orson Welles to adapt H. G. Wells' fiction book "The War of the Worlds" to the radio format in order to study the behavior of citizens under panic conditions.

Not only was the panic created by a fictional Martian invasion the night before Halloween anticipated by its producers, the program was purposely crafted to create terror.

This very first electronic mass media "psy-op" was heard by 6 million people, 1,700,000 of whom believed the broadcast to be genuine, and 1,200,000 of whom were frightened enough to take action -- either by running away or preparing to fight the invaders. Later, when the truth was revealed, Welles apologized repeatedly. The idea of using an interrupting news-bulletin in the middle of what seemed like regular music programming was deemed excessively cruel, manipulative and deceptive.

It has been reported that Welles even received death threats from the Rockefellers should he ever reveal that the "unforeseen" reaction to this broadcast was precisely what is perpetrators had hoped to achieve and analyze, demographically, psycho-graphically and statistically.

This secret test was used to judge susceptibility to phobias, fatalism and the fear of war. Members of the general public were later interviewed and their reactions were paired against such variables as religion, education, year and make of car, reading materials, job security, etc. Cantril later wrote a paper entitled: "The Invasion from Mars -- A Study in the Psychology of Panic." Cantril's study examined the power of the radio broadcast media and its effects upon a population under the direct influence of fear.

source: http://www.henrymakow.com/famous_media_psy-ops_orson_wel.html

wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)

Original Radio Broadcast:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3uv-92qxkE

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