Believe It

Radio in the 1930s fundamentally reshaped the American relationship with truth, functioning as both a tool for democratic engagement and a medium for mass manipulation. While programs like *Believe It or Not* and minstrel shows exploited the medium’s authoritative tone to broadcast fakes, local Spanish-language broadcasts like Pedro Gonzalez’s *Los Madrugadores* provided essential, trustworthy information for immigrant laborers facing systemic exclusion. The rise of new communications technology consistently triggers a crisis of epistemology, where the line between reality and performance blurs. Orson Welles’ *War of the Worlds* broadcast exemplified this tension, highlighting how easily mass media could cultivate doubt. Ultimately, the transition toward professional, eyewitness journalism represented an attempt to reclaim objective truth amidst the rising propaganda and global instability that defined the pre-war era, mirroring contemporary challenges posed by the internet.