Boston-Radio-Interest Digest, Vol 16, Issue 160

[Attorney Chase]

I suppose your right, otherwise Reagan wouldn't have been able to do his simulated announcing of ballgames although that probably happened before War of the Worlds. There was an "announcer" for the Brooklyn Dodgers who did the same thing from a radio studio in Washington DC. Nathan Matthew "Nat" Allbright (November 26, 1923 - July 18, 2011) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Allbright

Although the police seized all but one of the scripts after the War of the Worlds broadcast as "evidence of a crime" apparently no one was charged. I'll bet with some of the harassment and other laws extant today some DA would try to expand the envelope and bring some type of charges if the same type of thing as War of the Worlds happened today. Not saying it would pass muster under the 1st Amendment, just saying some DA would at least try it.


> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 01:13:32 -0400
> From: A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com>
> To: boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org
> Subject: Re: Did WBZ-TV cross the line on July 4th concerning public
> Message-ID: <4FFA687C.5000301@attorneyross.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 7/8/2012 1:00 PM, Attorney Chase wrote:
> 
>> Joe:
>>
>> Hasn't this sort of nonsense been illegal ever since the Orson Welles 
>> War of the World incident?
> 
> I don't know if it was a law, but I know that for awhile after that 
> broadcast, the method of doing a dramatic show with simulated newscasts 
> was banned, by the networks if not by the government.  But what I 
> described was not that.
> 
> -- 
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
> 617.367.0468|Fx:617.507.7856|http://www.attorneyross.com