War of the Worlds broadcast - model for GOP Tea Bag Suckers -

[Bill USA]

Last edited Wed Oct 30, 2013, 07:47 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.

[longship]

1. "without any provisos that is was a dramatization"

Wrong. It was announced as a dramatization by the Mercury Theater at the beginning of the program. Some who tuned in late missed that part.

BTW, I watched the program last night. It was very well done. But it made more out the so-called panic than actually happened. Near the end they admitted that.

This was more about the power of media than a wide spread panic that never really happened. The panic was apparently limited and episodic.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, regardless. Highly recommended. Fun!

[Bill USA]

2. "This was more about the power of media".. I take it then you would agree that the WofW broadcast

serves as a model for the sycophantic behavior of Corporate media repeating GOP disinformation and memes countless times without ever once examining the oft repeated and unquestioned assumptions and insinuations of GOP attacks on the Democrats, Obama, government and science (i.e. global warming). The GOP owes a lot to their toadies who dominate and run Corporate M$M.

over the last few days the GOP toadies of Corporate Media have relentlessly repeated the 26,794 figure for those who successfully signed up for health insurance on the government healthcare.gov website in October. But none of them, that I know of, made mention of another bit of data for October. That of the 846,184 who set up accounts on Healthcare.gov but have not yet selected a plan and the 1,509,883: individuals applying for coverage with completed applications.

Now, generally speaking, you can be pretty safe in saying that people who went to the trouble of setting up accounts on this site are serious about signing up for one of the health insurance plans. I think most people would agree that deciding which plan you want to sign up for is not a snap decision. It's not like choosing between buying a Snickers bar vs a Milky Way. Most people will probably print out the descriptions of the features of the various plans - in more than one level - to look it over at length. But, mentioning the 864,000 accounts successfully set -up covering 1.5 million people would not be consistent with the GOP's narrative that the ACA is an unmitigated disaster.