Posted on 12/15/2006 9:30:32 PM PST by RealTeen
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Suddenly and shockingly, Belgium came to an end. State television broke into regular programming late Wednesday with an urgent bulletin: The Dutch-speaking half of the country had declared independence and the king and queen had fled. Grainy pictures from the military airport showed dark silhouettes of a royal entourage boarding a plane.
Only after a half hour did the station flash the message: "This is fiction."
It was too late. Many Belgians had already fallen for the hoax.
Frantic viewers flooded the call center of the RTBF broadcaster that aired the stunt. Embassies called Belgian authorities to find out what was going on, while foreign journalists scrambled to get confirmation.
"Ambassadors who were worried asked what they had to tell their capitals," said Senate Chair Anne-Marie Lizin. "This fiction was seen as a reality and it created a catastrophic image of the country."
RTBF defended the program, saying it showed the importance of debate on the future of Belgium. But the network won few friends.
Even the Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister from neighboring Luxembourg, was angry and let it be know at the opening of the European Union summit. "This is not the kind of issue you play around with," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Gee, I thought Orson Wells was dead.
A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York.
The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, "The Shadow," used to give "the creeps" to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria.
My..but they are a bit touchy aint they?
Must be feeling a bit not to secure over there.
Radio back in those days was real. I mean it worked on your mind. You heard it, but you had to envision it mentally. What came up in your mind was entirely up to you and it wasnt always pretty.
TV on the other hand, already presents the image to you. They dont call it the boob tube for no reason.
Obviously his spirit is still with us. Along with the spirits of all the Sheeple who stampeded at the "War of the Worlds" broadcast.
Although in fairness, this sort of thing is a bunch more likely than aliens from Mars, even given the 1930s understanding of Mars.
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