FINALLY: The Hollywood Reporter connects the dots between Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast and Donald Trump: Orson Welles‘ War of the Worlds Broadcast: Its Ominous Echoes for a Fractured Media.

Every year there are new essays about unveiling the truth behind Orson Welles’s 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast that aired on CBS radio on October 30th, 1938. We know the truth – the stories about mass hysteria were overblown. For anyone looking for a straightforward history of what happened, look no farther than A. Brad Schwartz. The reason corrective stories keep coming up is that some people prefer to believe that the radio play sparked a nationwide mass panic. It sure makes for a great story. But while there were many confused listeners, some scared by the play’s deceptive production methods, there was not mass panic coast to coast. Finding the truth takes work, not unlike any fact-finding mission today, because we need to sift through a lot of salacious attention seeking information to find the facts. Then, as now, media literacy is a key facet towards intelligent public engagement.

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When War of the Worlds was broadcast, it was dramatic theater for some and revealed as orchestrated misinformation for others. At its core was harmless entertainment. Consider the partisan reporting on the January 6th committee versus what is being discussed and presented by both Republicans and Democrats in the investigation. A small percent of the population being confused about War of the Worlds was one thing and it is quite another when many in the population believe the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Tell them that judges across the nation have thrown Trump’s case out and it doesn’t matter – they’re already hoodwinked. They prefer the panic narrative.

I knew the Bad Orange Man sent the monsters from the Evil Red Planet!