Media Hysteria = Orwellian Broadcast

Internet ^ | 10/30/1938 | Mark Davis' excerpts from article re: "War of the Worlds"

[Cobra64]

"On October 30th, 1938, the United States experienced mass hysteria--most pronounced on the east coast in New York and New Jersey--in response to a radio broadcast put on by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater On The Air. The public reaction has prompted decades of research into mass hysteria, been used as a model by the military around the world to design information warfare against enemy troops and civilian populace, and used as the most compelling reason to protect the public from the knowledge of the presence of aliens on Earth....That's the fascinating aspect to all this. You know, when you think about it, Welles was a genius. He had people believing there was an invasion, then he turned around and told them that it was all a joke. We think people were afraid to admit that they'd been taken."

[Cobra64]

Few Americans and certainly the media knew what "anthrax" was until a month ago. Today, a news commentator can't exhale a breath without screaming *anthrax*. See any similarities?

[jlogajan]

I think it should be "Orsonwellian broadcast."

[Ratatoskr]

See any similarities?

Between Orson Welles and George Orwell? Not really.

[Soul Citizen]

Excellent correlation, thanks for the post.

[Katie_Colic]

Few Americans and certainly the media knew what "anthrax" was until a month ago. Today, a news commentator can't exhale a breath without screaming *anthrax*. See any similarities?

They're in a perpetual state of hysteria. Before anthrax, it was Summer of the Shark.

[verity]

And the Libertines whining about their rights is equally hysterical.

[jerod]

Yes!

Let's cool it on the hype. As I've said before. It may be scary, but lets put this Anthrax attack in context: (1) Dead, (1) Assistant to Tom Brokaw with a bad rash! Oooh!

It's certianly not as shocking as plowing 4 planes into national landmarks, and we are presently fighting a war to get the Real Terrorist and the media are navel gazing, with these Anthrax threats being concentrated mostly towards them.

Anthrax is a very poor and mostly non-lethal weapon in the Terrorist arsenal.

[wysiwyg]

Yes! Let's cool it on the hype.

Right...and no less than 4 threads "BREAKING: MICROSOFT ENVELOPE POSITIVE FOR ANTHRAX" just popped up at once.

[jerod]

HOW MANY DEAD DID YOU SAY THERE WERE?

Pardon me? I can't hear you, was that number 0?

For all those worried about Anthrax - go hide in your holes. As for the rest of us, it's life as usual.

[Gil4]

My first thought on Sept 11 was "this has to be a 'War of the Worlds' type of broadcast." I think what we have now is what happens when Orwell isn't making it up.

[Gil4]

Oops - I did that Orwell / Orson Welles thing wrong too. I think we should just merge them into one person - Orson Orwell. Won't make that mistake again that way.

[Gil4]

HOW MANY DEAD DID YOU SAY THERE WERE? // Pardon me? I can't hear you, was that number 0?

I believe that number was 1, not 0. But don't ask me; I can't even keep Orson Welles and George Orwell straight.

[Cobra64]

We can't either. It must be all the envelopes we keep sniffing; leading to major sneezing fits in expelling anthrax nodes. Regards, Mark & Karen