Question

According to “The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic,” why did newspaper reporters exaggerate the effects of the War of the Worlds broadcast?

A. They hoped to impress audiences by telling a gripping but untrue story.
B. They wanted people to distrust radio as a valid, reliable source of news.
C. They forgot to check their sources before the newspaper went to print.
D. They wanted to punish Welles for making fun of reporters in his play.

Answer 1

B. They wanted people to distrust radio as a valid, reliable source of news.

Step-by-step explanation:

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air aired in 1938. It was directed and narrated by Orson Welles as an adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds.

This episode became famous for allegedly causing panic among its listeners after it had convinced them that Martians were invading the Earth. However, it turned out that the panic wasn't as severe as the newspapers claimed, as a small number of people listened to the episode.

According to the article The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic, newspaper reporters exaggerated the effects of this broadcast because they wanted people to distrust radio as a valid, reliable source of news. They did this because the radio had taken off advertising revenue from print during the Depression, badly damaging the newspaper industry. This is why they wanted people to stop listening to the radio.