Halloween 2025 has come and gone but it reminded me of one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on a naïve audience. On Oct. 30, 1938, just over 87 years ago, a then 23-year-old Orson Welles used a relatively new technology (for the masses) to put fear into the entire nation with his CBS radio broadcast of the “War of the Worlds.”
By the way, as a proud Yinzer, KDKA radio in Pittsburgh is often credited with being the first successful commercial radio station.
The radio show, about an invasion of Earth by Martians, was so convincing (it was broadcast using the standard news format of that era to sound authentic) that it created a panic across the country. I remember seeing the 1953 theatrical version of the movie as a young child in Pittsburgh on the “Chiller Theatre” television show. A more modern remake of the movie by legendary director Steven Spielberg and featuring the timeless Tom Cruise, hit theaters in 2005 to mixed reviews. A more recent version starring Ice Cube was almost universally panned as one of the worst movies of 2025.
But I digress.
So how did so many people get duped into believing the broadcast was real? Because radio broadcasts of that era had really just become mainstream and many listeners tuned in after the opening and missed that it was simply an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel. Or was it really an attempt by CBS to test the waters on the power of mass media? Inquisitive minds want to know!
Ah yes, as P.T. Barnum is alleged to have said, “There is a sucker born every day.”
My Top 5 Conspiracy Theorist Moments
- The Apollo Moon Landings were faked.
- Elvis is still alive.
- A flying saucer crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.
- The Illuminati rule the world.
- An Inconvenient Truth.
Wait, how did Al Gore’s 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” make my list? Because every public-school child was made to watch his “science based” movie that boldly claimed that if we didn’t take drastic steps to reduce CO2 emissions immediately, the world would incur catastrophic results within 10 years.
Well didn’t Bill Gates, who totally supported Gore’s beliefs, just come out with a memo that greatly softened his stance on climate change? In a recent Time Magazine article he was quoted saying, “Countries should be encouraged to grow their economies even if that means a reliance on gas.” Say what?
He went on to say this about his memo, “If you think climate’s not important, you won’t agree with the memo,” Gates told journalists at a small gathering in New York City. “If you think climate’s the only cause [to address] and apocalyptic, you won’t agree with the memo.”
Perhaps it’s time again to quote my favorite 5th century French Philosopher, Michel De Montaigne, “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes… most of which never happened!” Or as one of my mentors told me years ago, “It is the sane person who appears insane to the insane person.”
Please don’t panic folks, I’m not a crazy global warming denier. What I am is a “pragmatic passioner” and I have always doubted that things were as dire as we were led believe by Al Gore and Greta Thunberg (who was all of 15 when adults fell head over heels for her catastrophizing). Apparently, I’m not the only skeptic.
According to Life Not Labs founder, James Quinn’s blog on March 12, 2025 titled “Al Gore’s Climate Predictions: What He Got Wrong and Where We Stand Today,” while he supports many of Gore’s beliefs, he also is highly critical of the magnitude of Gore’s claims.
“I feel that Al Gore’s statements and work were derived from factual evidence about the dangers of climate change, but the function of his actions were to benefit himself and his notoriety.”
Hmmmmm. Not so inconvenient, eh?
The Climate Cosmos team jointly authored this recent article “Are We Overreacting? Scientists Debate Climate Alarmism” which states:
“A landmark 2024 survey published in the journal ‘Climate Research’ found that about 40% of climate scientists now express skepticism about the catastrophic predictions often associated with mainstream climate models.” A far cry from the 98% in the science community we were led to believe supported the draconian interpretation just two decades ago.
The article also quotes Judith Curry, a former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, “We need to be more honest about the uncertainties in climate projections.”
The authors continue, “This sentiment is echoed by other senior scientists who believe that past messaging may have overstated the certainty of catastrophic outcomes. Their call isn’t to deny climate change, but to bring greater precision and humility to the debate. Many say that alarmist messaging can backfire, leading to public fatigue and skepticism.”
So, who do you believe?
Global arming and climate change are real. Perhaps just not as real as we were led to believe. The questions about measuring if this is man-made or not rage on. Common sense tells us that you don’t purposely pollute water or air. But when you consider the alarmist messages came from the very people who benefited from the hysteria that was created.
Isn’t it plausible that we believe what we want to believe sometimes just because we are following the crowd? That’s what happens when sensationalism takes over from reason. It is going to get harder and harder to know what’s true and what is being perpetrated upon us.
My wife was a hydrogeologist at a small consulting firm, and we used to engage with her colleagues in discussions about the “real” science behind climate change. My takeaway was that something about this wasn’t adding up from a common-sense perspective. It just seemed to me that there were other solutions to the whole energy crisis that could include fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Do yourself a favor and read “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” by Bjorn Lomborg just to get a different perspective than Al Gore’s.
Follow the Money
I’m going to channel my inner Woodward and Bernstein and “Follow the money.”
Let’s look at all the prognosticators wasting your time and mine on who the next football coach will be at Penn State. I ask once again, who to believe?
I was in the business of college and professional sports, so I know how the sausage is made. Heck, I even helped make the sausage for years. But with the out-of-control NIL and transfer portal, it just feels like we have lost our way. To quote Jerry Maguire from the 1996 movie about a football agent who grows a conscience, “Show me the money!”
Speaking of agents… superagent Jimmy Sexton is laughing all the way to the bank at how easily all the folks in the ivory towers around the country have caved in to pay the absurd salaries they are willing to pay out today. These guys don’t care about tradition or loyalty; they care about the next big contract, even if it means purposely planting disinformation and playing both ends against the middle.
In a recent column by Liam Reynolds on the Pro Football Network website entitled, “James Franklin Won’t Join Virginia Tech as Jimmy Sexton’s Tactics Add Twist to His True Intentions.”
“From what I’ve heard, I don’t believe this is a done deal,” Locked on Nittany Lions podcaster Zach Sekyo claimed. “I think that Jimmy Sexton, his agent, is being strategic. Some people talk about, hey, this is a classic Sexton move. He will leak information so that other offers can start to come to him.”
I really don’t blame Sexton; he’s just doing his job.
So, who do you believe is at fault for allowing this idol worship of coaches and athletes to reach the magnitude of insanity we have reached in college sports?
I laughed so hard at the recent rant by the Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry about not allowing (now former) athletic director Scott Woodward pick the next LSU head coach. “No, I can tell you right now Scott Woodward is not selecting the next head coach. I’d let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it…”
Landry called it “a failed experiment” with the contracts Woodward oversaw for former Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher and LSU’s Brian Kelly. Look, I don’t blame these people for accepting these contracts. I blame the NCAA, the leadership in higher education, the greedy agents and us fans who just keep shelling out whatever is asked. It’s unsustainable and more importantly it’s just wrong.
While I absolutely agree with the governor about the crazy contracts, doesn’t he have more important stuff to do for the citizens of Louisiana? Oh, I forgot, football really is that important…because we have allowed it to become so!
I’m as close as I have ever been to swearing off “prollegiate” sports. I just don’t personally like what’s happening to college sports. I’m also very disappointed in what’s happening with the proliferation in sports betting. But that’s my opinion. Obviously enough people still feel football is so important that they are willing to spend money they can, in some cases, ill afford to buy tickets to attend or to place a bet.
I know this is a bit of a detour from my usual columns, folks. But I guess I’m just at that point where I shake my head at the rationale people come up with to justify what’s happening in the world and who to believe. Whether we are talking about what really should matter, the way we handle the environment in a more pragmatic way, or what we think matters, who will be the next football coach at Dear Old State.
Either way, who you believe should be based on good old-fashioned research and debate that’s true at heart, is intended for the greater good, and where people actually admit they may be wrong.
I can dream, can’t I?
