WI: "Local58 Contigency" actually happened


For those who don't want to or can't watch the video: a PSA plays at 3am, stating that the USA has completely surrendered but is 'claiming victory even in defeat' and is asking the people watching to 'preserve the spirit of America, untarnished' by killing themselves and their family members. Towards the end of the video the PSA cuts off and the station dismisses it as a hoax.

Now lets say that, regardless of whether its a (very dark LBJ 2nd term) government accidentally playing something it never wanted to or a much more sinister in nature Max Headroom-style incident, such a PSA actually played at 3am in the late 60s US... what would happen?

The very late (or early, from a certain perspective) time at which its playing would certainly help limit its effects, but what damage would this manage to cause?
 

chankljp

Donor
Well, considering that VHS tapes didn't become widespread and popularly available until the late 1970s, even if someone did happen to turn on the TV at 3 am sometime in the late 1960s and saw the broadcast.... How exactly are they going to prove it? And since this was also before the age of the Internet, it would have been very hard for people that did saw it to find each other an gather the bits and pieces of evidence to put the entire thing together and make sure that they were in fact not just imagining things.

So, at most, it would become an urban legend. But more likely ended up being totally forgotten soon afterwards.
 
Some nutter offs himself but not more than that, it's in the news, a government official apologizes and maybe fired. It's not spoken off after a few weeks.
 
Top