From MediaMythAlert (read the whole thing):
I further note in Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism
that the War of the Worlds show also offered American newspapers an “irresistible opportunity to rebuke radio—which in 1938 was an increasingly important rival source for news and advertising.” Newspapers took delight in assailing radio as an unreliable, untrustworthy source of information.
And this overwhelmingly negative commentary, I write, helped solidify the notion that the radio broadcast had sown mass panic and hysteria among Americans.
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cuaxovEckY&feature=player_embedded"
