SENSATIONAL SCARE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19691, 19 January 1926, Page 9

SENSATIONAL SCARE

RUMOURS OF A RIOT. SERIOUS MISUNDERSTANDING. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, January 17. The Weekly Dispatch states that practically the whole country was seething all night with sensational rumours of a great riot in Trafalgar Square, (with a march of the masses on Whitehall and the destruction of a big building. The misunderstanding, which resulted in one of the greatest wireless scares in the history of broadcasting, aroso through the defective relating of Father Ronald Knot’s humorous, imaginative talk broadcasting "The Barricades” from an Edinburgh station, which many mistook for an official news bulletin. Extraordinary stories spread like wildfire that a great revolution had commenced. Everybody knew it was true because they had heard it officially by wireless. Some even had heard of the bombing of the Savoy Hotel as part of the Broadcasting Company’s realistic stage effects. The Dispatch and other newspaper offices were soon nmndated with frantic inquiries for further information. The newspapers impressed on the company that the country was genuinely alarmed, and the company broadcasted an apology, explaining that many listeners apparently missed the preliminary warning that Father Knox’s bulletins wer e purely fantastic. Critics assert that the company scandahmslv abused its license.—.A, and N.Z. Cable. ’ POSITION EXPLAINED. FATHER KNOX A HUMORIST. PEOPLE ALARMED. BROADCASTING COMPANY CRITICISED. LONDON, January 18. (Received Jan. 18, at 8.5 p.m.) The ultra original item of Saturday’s wireless entertainment from London has results in sharp criticism of the British (Broadcasting Company. Father Ronald Knox, a well-known Roman Catholic preacher, whose reputation as a wit is equal to the well-known Brother Evoe of Punch, delivered a skit broadcasting, which professed to describe a Communist revolution in London. Father Knox, speaking as a /wireless announcer, described the receipt of news to the effect that the Houses of Parliament had been blown up, the National Gallery sacked, and the Savoy Hotel invaded. The description was punctuated with the shoutings of the mob, and noises of the explosioiis which were so realistic that many listeners forgot that Father Knox was a humorist, and believed that LondoA was really in the hands of Communists. Hundreds of listeners telephoned to London anxiously inquiring for confirmation of the rif/ws. Throughout Sunday there were inquiries from more remote villages, though the Broadcasting Company had stated that the address was a sldt.—A. and N.Z. Cable. REASSURANCES .AND APOLOGIES. THE SAME SIZE IN JOKES. PRESS COMMENTS. LONDON, January 17(Received Jan. 18, at 7.10 p.m.) The consternatin arising out of Father Knox’s fake bulletins continued throughout Sunday. The broadcasting company was forced to continue reassuring explanations and apologies. A controversy has arisen concerning the wisdom of broadcasting items likely to be misleading The company points out that the bulletin? were so fantastic that they should not have been misunderstood. The newspaper Sketch expresses the opinion that the panic was so genuine that t>c matter cannot be allowod to rest. The company failed to realise that people do not sit with head phones clamped to their cars all night long, but pick up the phones occasionally, and thereby easily miss the preliminary announcement. The incident shdws tfiat everybody does not take the same S’-ze in jokes. People now know better than to accept anything as news until they have seen it in print. —Sydney Sun Cable.