Worldwide Web of . . . . Martian Reports?

“Martians have landed and are quickly making their way to the capital!”

Is this true? Why of course not.

But people heard it and perceived as as a threat.

The October 1938 version of “War of the Worlds” is the classic. Another occasion was February 12, 1949, the eve that martians were said to have landed in Ecuador, as dramatized on Radio Quito. The panicked response of listeners paralleled that of nearly 11 years earlier on the Columbia radio network.

In the Ecuador episode, the Martians’ initial assault occurred at Latacunga, with the deadly sweep northward to Quito and Cotocollao, near the international airport. With growing panic in the streets, the actors at Radio Quito revealed the truth. Fear turned to anger which turned into a riot outside the building that housed the radio station and El Comercio newspaper. That night, the facilities were burned down, resulting in several deaths. Those who had authored the radio production fled the country.

Radio was relatively young and its power to inform, entertain and motivate listeners was still being discovered. In the 1940s, the martian takeover had also played out in Chile.

Consider the Internet today. Stories of foreboding still work, but in different venues, with different results. I-phone guru Steve Jobs was hospitalized with chest pains – or at least that was the report on CNN’s Ireport.

Apple stock dropped below its traditional price floor of $100, but recovered as the "news" was corrected. When Jobs gave a press conference to the traditional media, a big, bold banner behind him read, “The rumors of my death are highly exaggerated.”

Our modern population might be too sophisticated for panic at the sound of a field reporter’s last gasps of life as martian gasses asphyxiate him. But we’re not always saavy enough to determine the truth or error of today’s citizen journalists.

Collaborative efforts provide some notably good results, but damaging reports will still filter in. In his October 3 column, John C. Dvorak said of inaccuracies, disinformation and hoaxes we see with citizen journalism, “It’s like a bad forest fire: it can be contained but not controlled.”

He wrote that citizen journalists would be heavily criticized for false report on Jobs, but that we all need to “get over it. We’re stuck with what we have.” We have a world of information. Consume with care.

Xavier Almeida of Radio Quito wishes such a dramatization were possible again. Take a few minutes to listen to this 1998 interview and hear his description of the events of February 12, 1949.



An avid shortwave radio listener, Don Moore discovered the story about Radio Quito's version of War of the Worlds while at a university library in Michigan, USA. Listen to Don in this telephone interview.

Historic photo used with permission of El Comercio