Question

What reason does Orson Welles give at the press conference for his reaction to the panic caused by his radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds?

A.
The H. G. Wells novel is a classic and the story is well known.
 

B.
The police had informed the audience that nothing was happening.
 

C.
The broadcast included announcements that the events were not real.
 

D.
Listeners had already heard advertisements for his adaptation of The War of the Worlds.

Answer 1

A. is the correct answer for apex. His argument was that the novel was a well known story.

Answer 2

The correct answer is A, The H. G. Wells novel is a classic and the story is well known.

The War of the Worlds tells the story about a Martian invasion on Earth, and it was already considered a classic in 1938, inspiring many other sci-fi novels. Also, despite the realistic dramatization in Orson Welles' radio broadcast, which adapted the original novel to fake bulletins, the show had warned listeners that it was all fiction right before it started and then again at 40 and 55 min into the show.

So Welles expressed his surprised at the press conference held after the broadcast about the supposed panic it had caused. He claimed that the classic had even "become familiar to children through the medium of comic strips", and that he was extremely surprised it had caused such an "immediate and profound effect upon radio listeners".