Disinformation and Misinformation: The Fine Art of Exaggeration

It was Sunday night, October 30th, 1938, when we first learned that aliens had invaded at Grover's Mill in New Jersey. This report came over the radio airwaves on the CBS Mercury Radio Theater on the Air. According to the news dispatches aired, local law enforcement was informed, and curious folks had come to look. The local radio station arrived with a reporter who was able to report live from the scene to describe everything. The first alien spacecraft crashed into the surface of the earth, and for a time it sat quiet. It was just a curiosity, until the aliens emerged to wreak havoc on the peaceful citizens. In their advance the aliens left nothing alive, and nothing but a barren smoldering wasteland in their wake. Then 60 minutes after it began, the radio play, The War of the Worlds ended, as the invading Martians were rapidly killed off by a simple virus, they had no defense for – and the earth was safe again.  The next morning, the Newspapers were filled with reports of mass panic and nationwide hysteria by those who caught the radio program the night before. But did it?Also See:https://www.buzzfeed.com/madisonmcgee/people-are-sharing-the-wildest-historical-events-that-are    -    item 7https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/https://youtu.be/Xs0K4ApWl4g?si=YgGS1lG85YgBt-LBhttps://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2013/threatened-by-radio-newspapers-exaggerated-war-of-the-worlds-panic/