The War of the Worlds broadcast on October 30, 1938 was the ultimate in fake news. Orson Welles and John Houseman created a radio program that fooled the country into believing martians had landed in New Jersey. Gail Jarrow does a fantastic job setting up this pivotal moment in history. She explains the importance of radio to an audience who probably never listen to the radio. She sets up the people involved by describing not only Welles and Houseman and their radio programs but also the original novel by H.G. Wells. She explains how Welles and Houseman thought this was going to be a boring show and worked to jazz it up. They came up with the idea of news bulletins interrupting a regular radio program and reports from the field. They had no idea the reaction their show was having amongst the listening public.

Where Jarrow excels is showing the mixed reactions from the public. She includes actual reactions and letters from people of the time. Many were fooled, but probably not as many as was originally reported. Some people heard the intro to the program and realized it was a story. Others figured it out because of the leaps in time in the program. Others went to the scenes and realized nothing was going on. But many people panicked and fled the cities or flooded their local police and radio stations with calls. When the program was revealed to be untrue, many people were irate. 

Even though this story took place nearly 100 years ago it still seems relevant in today's atmosphere of fake news. It is amazing how easy it is to be fooled by news that seems real. Many are not taught to question or investigate today and take what they read online at face value. It is frightening.