DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD | Giving citizens a voice
01 June 2008
“See It Now”: Murrow vs. McCarthy
(The following article is taken from the U.S. Department of State publication, Edward R. Murrow: Journalism at Its Best.)
By Michael Jay Friedman
Edward R. Murrow may not have scored the first blow against Joseph McCarthy, but he landed a decisive one. For that, he always will be linked inextricably with the Wisconsin senator, and remembered by Americans as a champion of liberty.
Opposing Communism while maintaining fundamental political liberties posed serious challenges in Cold War America. There were Americans who were members or supporters of the Communist Party of the United States, which owed its political allegiance to the Soviet Union and not to the United States. But there were other Americans falsely charged with being Communist supporters or sympathizers, and wrongly accused of treason against the United States. The U.S. government and other institutions – from employers to universities – found it difficult at times to distinguish between those who were real threats to the nation and those who were innocent.
Joseph McCarthy, the junior U.S. senator from Wisconsin, seized upon the public mood to launch a series of inquiries through public Senate committee hearings about possible Communist infiltration of prominent American institutions, particularly the government, the military, and the media. Individuals suspected of Communist ties were called before his subcommittee, aggressively questioned about their involvement in the Communist Party, and pressured to name Communists. While the archives of the former Soviet Union and U.S. intercepts of Soviet spy communications later proved some measure of infiltration, McCarthy's often savage efforts ruined careers and damaged lives. Always a controversial figure, McCarthy enjoyed considerable popularity for a time. Eventually, though, his campaign effectively discredited the anti-Communist investigations among many Americans.
Murrow was himself an anti-Communist but a McCarthy skeptic. As early as 1950, Murrow observed on the air that "the weight of the public testimony has tended to show that so far, Senator McCarthy's charges are unproven." Unproven or not, those charges continued, and they contributed to an atmosphere in which many feared McCarthy and his Senate investigations subcommittee. On March 9, 1954, Murrow, then the most respected journalist in America, engaged in a tough exposé of the senator and his tactics.
Gradually, Murrow's fear that McCarthy posed a real threat to civil liberties developed into a determination to use his TV documentary series "See It Now" against the senator. At that time, U.S. broadcasters were covered by the "Fairness Doctrine," which required broadcast licensees to present contentious issues in an honest, equal, and balanced manner and to afford persons or groups criticized during such a broadcast the opportunity to respond on the air. Murrow and his producer, Fred Friendly, prepared a half-hour program focused only on McCarthy and his tactics. They understood that the CBS network would afford the senator a half-hour of prime time – in a separate broadcast – to rebut Murrow. They also realized that McCarthy likely would launch a personal attack on Murrow himself.
Even so, Murrow understood that on television a skilled journalist and his technology-savvy team of editors, writers, and producers enjoyed real advantages. They could select the least flattering video clips, juxtapose McCarthy's many contradictory statements and charges, and generally employ their skills to portray the senator in an unflattering light. Murrow feared that less scrupulous journalists might abuse these techniques, but he believed that McCarthy posed an immediate threat and that the American people, when confronted with the truth, would repudiate McCarthy.
Murrow's own broadcast featured excerpts from the senator's own speeches interspersed with Murrow's comments, which pointed out contradictions and deftly turned McCarthy's words against him. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, described Murrow's demeanor as "a magnificent controlled fury, handsome and composed – an attitude all the more effective because the public knew that he could be genial and easygoing on-camera." Murrow's words reflected that controlled fury:
[T]he line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. … We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. … (W)e are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent. …
When the broadcast ended, CBS was flooded with telegrams, telephone calls, and letters. They ran 15 to 1 in Murrow's favor. By contrast, McCarthy's equal-time broadcast proved disastrous. He was obviously uncomfortable in the television studio, and, as Murrow suggested, prone to flinging wild charges, calling Murrow "the leader of the jackal pack." Millions of Americans watching at home had seen enough. McCarthy's political influence rapidly ebbed. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate formally adopted a resolution censuring – formally reprimanding – McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.
[Michael Jay Friedman is a staff writer in the Bureau of International Information Programs of the U.S. Department of State.]
