Orson Welles, Version 2.0

It may not have been a remake of Orson Welles' classic 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, but a recent fake television news report overseas created a familiar round of mass hysteria, followed by anger.

Georgia, a farming region that was once part of the Soviet Union, was at war with its much bigger neighbor, Russia, only two years ago. So when Georgian television depicted a new Russian invasion, a lot of people believed it, even though the broadcast contained disclaimers.

A National Public Radio story on the situation generated a discussion about just how much trust we should place in media.