War of the Worlds broadcast - model for GOP Tea Bag Suckers - [View all]

Last edited Wed Oct 30, 2013, 06:47 PM - Edit history (1)

...on PBS's American Experience they had a show about how Orson Welles 1938 dramatization of War of the Worlds making it sound like a news bulletin - without any provisos that it was a dramatization - caused panic all across the U.S. After the broadcast there was outrage that Welles would pull such a dangerous stunt and talk of legal action or legislation to preclude such actions in the future.

I was thinking how little general uproar there is about GOP tv (Fox) doing pretty much the same thing as what Welles did, every day. All you have to do is substitute "Obamacare" or "Obama the socialist/alien/Kenyan" for "Martian invasion" and it's pretty much a Fox Broadcast - or perhaps a Fox - Light (i.e. PBS) broadcast. Even Democrats just shrug their shoulders. There doesn't seem to be much offense taken these days at lies insinuated or delivered as a bald faced Big Lie. (John Stewart and Steven Colbert seem to be the only ones expressing disgust at the constant barrage of Big Lies from Fox, (even worse) aided and abetted by Corporate media for often repeating the Big Lie or slipping it into a sentence in an implied way)

Fox played a big role in promoting the Tea 'Party' early on, providing overplayed coverage of Tea Bag Sucker gatherings and incessant nearly daily discussions of the Tea Bag Sucker 'developments. Sure, GOP politicos were essential in organizing, hyping gatherings, writing press releases, and other 'professional' services, while being sure to not be seen at any of the soirées. But Fox's free airtime was also extremely important in whipping up the "grass roots" movement.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/worlds/player/

War of the Worlds

Shortly after 8 p.m. on the Halloween Eve, 1938, the voice of a panicked radio announcer broke in with a news bulletin reporting strange explosions taking place on the planet Mars, followed minutes later by a report that Martians had landed in the tiny town of Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Although most listeners understood that the program was a radio drama, the next day's headlines reported that thousands of others plunged into panic, convinced that America was under a deadly Martian attack. It turned out to be H.G. Wells' classic The War of the Worlds, performed by 23-year-old Orson Welles.