Re:That's my favorite myth, too. (Score 2, Insightful)

Actually it's not just "some guy from Western Illinois University". There's quite a body of work on the myth of the WotW hysteria. As for the veracity of contemporary newspaper accounts (because newspapers are always truthful, right?) - almost none of those accounts were first hand. They used the familiar motif of "just over there, just beyond what you personally know about, there's some astounding things going on". Just like cannibals are always in the next village, and the choking doberman / vanishing hitch-hiker / stolen kidney stories always happened to a friend of a friend (of a friend ...), the stories of hysteria were safely placed in the next state, the deep south, somewhere else.

Did the broadcast wierd some people out? Sure. Did it lead to widespread panic and hysteria? No. Fortean Times carried an article on the hysteria myth last year. Check out their website for it.