Monday, August 24, 2020

Orson Welles and the Amazing Power of the Media to Mold the Public Mind

By Jeff Harris - August 24, 2020 at 04:52PM

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To understand what’s happening in our Covid psy op world today it’s helpful to go back to 1938 for a history lesson in the power of fake news. But first let’s do a quick review. The Covid psy-op has been an all-out psychological terrorist attack against innocent citizens across the globe. Utilizing an unprecedented PR campaign the mainstream media, public health officials, celebrities and big tech have worked together to terrorize humanity with the story of a deadly killer virus.

A research report published July 27th by Keksit CNC asked what percentage of the population did the participants believe had died from Covid-19? The answer for US participants: 9 percent. With approximately 330 million people in the US that would equate to almost 30 million deaths or 1 out of 10. The actual number at the time was approximately 175,000.

And since the official number of Covid-19 deaths has been grossly inflated to include anyone “suspected” of having Covid with no demonstrable proof necessary, the actual number is in reality much, much lower.

So how could so many people be so wrong about the real numbers? Well as I mentioned at the beginning of this article something quite revealing about “fake news” and the Media's ability to mold and shape public opinion occurred in late October, 1938. The “new” technology of radio broadcasting was in its infancy at the time. Radio stations were fighting to gain loyal listeners that could be parlayed into lucrative advertising dollars.

The new medium of radio was starting to eat into the cash flow of the big newspapers during the Great Depression, badly damaging their revenue stream and they decided something had to be done. And so when 23 year old Orson Welles stepped up to the microphone at 8:00 PM on October 30th, 1938 to broadcast The Mercury Theatres hour long version of H. G. Wells War of the Worlds (a sci-fi Martian attack) a huge gift was dropped in their laps and they sprang into action!

The effect was so powerful and long lasting that in 2013 on the 75th anniversary of the broadcast the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) released an embarrassing “documentary.” Narrator Oliver Platt said in part:
Upwards of a million people, (were) convinced, if only briefly, that the United States was being laid waste by alien invaders. The panic inspired by Welles made War of the Worlds perhaps the most notorious event in American broadcasting history.
Wow, that’s quite a statement, “. . . perhaps the most notorious event in American broadcasting history.” Not to be outdone National Public Radio (NPR) followed up on the PBS show with this gem:
The United States experienced a kind of mass hysteria that we’ve never seen before.
How did PBS and NPR come up with this story in the first place? If you go back and look at the hysterical headlines in massive bold print of America’s leading newspapers published the morning after the broadcast you’ll understand more.

“FAKE RADIO “WAR” STIRS TERROR THROUGH US” (New York Daily News)

“RADIO PLAY TERRIFIES NATION” (The Boston Daily Globe)

“Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact” (The New York Times)

“US PROBES INVASION BROADCAST: RADIO PLAY CAUSES WIDE PANIC” (New York Post)

“OTTAWA SEEKS WAY TO BAN RADIO HORRORS” (Toronto Daily Star)

Over the next two weeks newspapers published over 12,500 stories about the “dangerous” radio show. They demanded the government clamp down on such frightening material broadcast over the radio waves. The newspaper journalists whipped up stories of suicides, nervous breakdowns, women screaming as they ran through the streets with babies, men shooting at imagined Martians wounding terrorized citizens, hysterical people calling the police wanting to know if it was real! Oh the horror of it all!

The newspapers hoped that radio sponsors would be scared off and regulators would clamp down hard on the studio’s limiting their ability to siphon off advertising dollars, but it was too late.

What really happened?

Thankfully, as Slate Magazine points out, we have the documented evidence of the C. E. Hooper ratings service which telephoned 5,000 households asking, “To what radio program are you listening?” Only two percent answered a radio play or the Orson Welles program or something similar.

Welles Mercury Theatre began the play with a disclaimer statement that the show was not real and was for the audience’s entertainment. The same disclaimer was read after each commercial break so most listeners were aware it wasn’t real.

And the fact that Welles was competing with the wildly popular Edgar Bergen’s Chase and Sanborn Hour, a comedy-variety show broadcast at the same time meant his audience was probably smaller than usual. In addition, Welles program was on the CBS network and several important affiliates pre-empted Welles broadcast in favor of local programing.

In reality the Welles radio play was a non-event. Virtually none of the hyped up claims by the newspapers could be corroborated with hard evidence. Neither Welles nor the CBS network were fined or otherwise disciplined by the FCC.

According to Slate:
CBS commissioned a nationwide survey the day after the broadcast, and network executives were relieved to discover just how few people actually tuned in. 'In the first place, most people didn’t hear it,' CBS’s Frank Stanton recalled later 'But those who did hear it, looked at it is as a prank and accepted it that way.'

However, the FCC did obtain an informal agreement that fictional 'news flashes' would not be used moving forward.
Sensing their attacks had failed the newspapers stopped reporting on “The most notorious event in American broadcasting history” after only a couple of weeks. If the nation had been truly traumatized you can bet the papers would have kept up the pressure relentlessly as long as possible.

The new medium of radio proved too powerful for the newspapers to stop with their “fake news” yet the myth of the nation being terrorized by an imagined Martian invasion lives on.

The newspapers were almost single handedly able to create a sensationalized “fake” story that many believed was real. Imagine the power of a coordinated media campaign that utilizes the reach of not only radio, TV, Newspapers, magazines and the new titans of advertising Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.

Throw in celebrity appearances, official “health” organizations like the WHO and the CDC and national political figures, mandatory mask orders and you have the recipe for a very successful global psy op campaign.

Virtually every media web page you open today has a Covid-19 blurb on it. Even the weather channel has the latest Covid-19 pandemic stories. When you wake up your i phone has the latest BREAKING NEWS that invariably has dire warnings about the killer virus and the rising “cases” that imperial life on planet earth!

Is it any wonder most of the world has been successfully brainwashed into believing the Covid hoax? But you and I know it is being used as a tool for power and control over people and has nothing to do with health and safety.

We have a job to do. To get the word out to as many people as possible about the true nature of the Covid menace. No, we don’t have the reach of big media but by planting seeds of truth in the hearts and minds of those willing to listen we still have a chance to preserve what’s left of our liberty and freedoms before it’s completely gone.

Let me suggest you start by refusing to submit to wearing a fear mask. Your courage will speak volumes to those who know in their heart something is very wrong and hopefully encourage them to take a stand for freedom too!

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