https://wellesnet.com/dorothy-thompson/
In the wake of the WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast, Orson Welles was protected from liability for any effects of the show by a clause in his contract with CBS, but many newspaper columnists began to call for a government clamp down on radio, the still relatively new media that was becoming stiff competition for the newspaper industry. Just a couple of days after the show was aired, columnist Heywood Brown had warned, "The next radio invasion is likely to be an expedition from the censors."
But within a short time, the tide began to turn. Dorothy Thomson, the first American journalist to be kicked out of Nazi Germany, was one of those who, after a few days reflection, started praising Welles for the Martian broadcast instead of blaming him for it. Her New York Herald Tribune article of November 2nd, mentioned in several Welles books, was syndicated in other papers across the country. It is now available to read online in its entirety:
Mr. Welles and Mass Delusion (November 3rd, 1938):
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the- ... 2lE0n8LBLQ
As one Welles author put it: "Censorship and government control over what was broadcast over the airwaves was a hallmark of Fascist regimes. This, as many were finding out, was a slippery slope to start down. The WOTW broadcast had also succeeded in illustrating - as perhaps Welles had intended - the extreme vulnerability of the United States at a time when Hitler was riding roughshod over Europe. It was clear that America was ill-prepared for anything approaching a confrontation with an enemy power.""Far from blaming Mr. Orson Welles, he should be given a congressional medal. Mr. Welles and his theater have...thrown more light on recent events in Europe leading to the Munich pact than everything that has been said on the subject by all the journalists and commentators.
The immediate moral (of the broadcast) is apparent if one looks at it in reason: no political body must ever, under any circumstances, obtain a monopoly of radio. The power of mass suggestion is the most potent force today...if people can be frightened out of their wits by mythical men from Mars, they can be frightened into fanaticism by a fear of Reds, or convinced that America is in the hands of sixty families, or aroused to revenge against any minority, or terrorized into subservience to leadership because of any imaginable menace."
On November 8, 1938, Hitler mentioned the broadcast in a speech in Munich, pointing to the panic as evidence of the American public's corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy. By that time, Welles had gone from heel to hero, and blame had shifted away from those who had perpetrated the hoax, towards those who had been gullible enough to fall for it.