This is a presentation I made for a Political Science class I took at Yale called Political Journalism & Public Policy. It focuses on Edward R. Murrow and his TV show "See It Now", which exposed Senator Joseph McCarthy and his plot against Communists and former Communists, and how the show had an effect on public policy.

1. See It Now
Murrow vs McCarthy
Edward R. Murrow
on Life magazine

2. Background
Graduation photo of Murrow
from Washington State College
■ Born into a Quaker farmer family in Polecat
Creek, South Carolina, in 1908
■ Moved to Washintong State & grew up there
most of the time
■ Attended Washington State College, where he
majored in Speech
■ Moved to NYC after graduation & ran the
national office of National Student Federation of
America in 1930
■ CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Company) hired
him as a director of “talks & education”

3. CBS London
Murrow in London
■ The increasing tension on the European
continent & war loomed
■ “Murrow’s Boys”: Murrow assembled a group
of qualified reporters working to cover the stories
as they unfolded
■ Always on the frontline, from Nazi’s
Bushenwald concentration camp to the plane of
US bombing missions
■ Became the director of CBS London 2 years
later
■ Made his voice and name well known back in
Americans

4. Hear It Now
Murrow at CBS
■ Came back to the WWII
■ Worked with his long-term broadcasting partner
Fred W. Friendly in his radio program, “Hear It
Now”
■ The program was transformed into TV News
and public affair program called “See It Now” in
1954

5. “Good night,
and good luck.”
Murrow, beginning in 1940, the closing of CBS radio broadcasts from London
■ “The founder of American Broadcast jounalism”
■ Moved broadcat beyond headline and
established it as an original news source,
not merely taking stories from newspapers
■ Space for serious investigations and
discussion of public affairs
Murrow interviewing American soldiers in Korean War

6. Joesph
McCarthy
■ American politician
■ Served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the
State of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in
1957
■ Beginning in the 50s, became the most visible
public face of a period of widespread fear of
Communist subversion fueled by the Cold War
■ “McCarthysim”: a vociferous campaign against
alleged communists in the US government and
other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph
McCarthy.

7. The Roots of
McCarthyism
■ Before WWII: child labor laws & women’s
suffrage and even Roosevelt’s “New Deal” as
“communist” or “Red plots”
■ Cold War: US-Soviet rivery intensified
■ After WWII, America sought dominance but did
not work too well
■ “Second Red Scare” characterized by the fear
of Communist influence on American institutions
and the fear of Soviet espionage on America.
A 1947 propaganda comic book raising the
specter of a Communist takeover

8. Institutions
J. Edgar Hoover, in charge of the FBI, during the
McCarthy Era
■ Executive Branch
■ Loyalty-Security Reviews
■ from President Harry Truman’s
Executive Order 9835 in 1947
■ intensified by PresidentEsenhower
in 1953
■ J. Edgar Hoover & FBI
■ FBI as “the single most important
component of the anti-communist crusade”
- Ellen Schrecker
■ “Hooverism” or “McCarthyism”?
■ Congress
■ House Committee on Un-American
Activities
■ The Senate Internal Securty
Subcommittee
■ Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations
■ 109 cases in 5 years within Congress and
its committees

9. Laws
News coverage of Communists facing trial under
Smith Act
■ Alien Registration Act (or “Smith Act”) of 1940
■ A criminal defense for anyone to “knowingly
or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the
[...] desirability or propriety of ovetthrowing the
Government of U.S. or of any State by force of
violence, or for anyone to organize any association
which teaches, advises or encourages such an
overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to
affiliate with any such association”
■ led to imprisonment of many communist members
■ The McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950
■ “the McCarthy era’s only important piece of
legislation” - Ellen Schrecker
■ no real effect beyond legal harrassment
■ The Communist Control Act of 1954
■ passed with overwhelming support in both houses of
Congress after very little debate
■ an extension of the Internal Security Act of 1950
■ Outlawed the Communist party and “CommunistInfiltrated Organization”: they were “not entitled to any
of the rights, privileges, and immunities attendant upon
legal bodies”

10. Victims of
McCarthyism
Blacklists in entertainment industry
■ Investigations & accusations with false or
unproven evidence
■ Blacklists
■ an estimate of 20 thousands lost their jobs
■ More than 300 actors, authors, & directors
in Hollywood
■ in entertainment industry, in unviersities
and schools of all levels, in legal profession, and
in many other fields
■ Arrests & Imprisonment
■ Hundreds of people
■ Suspected homosexuality - “sexual perverts”

11. vs

12. From Skeptic
to Full-blown
Opponent
■ Considered himself as anti-Communist
■ McCarthy skeptic
■ As early as 1950, he observed on the air that
“the weight of the public testimony has tended to
show that so far, Senator McCarthy’s charges are
unproven.”
■ He knew he would have a direct confrontation
with McCarthy and he was waiting for a good
time.
■ On March 9, 1954, Murrow, then the most
respected journalist in America, engaged in a
tough expose of the senator and his tactics on his
TV show “See It Now”.

13. Preparing for
“See It Now”
4:02 - 5:44
■ He knew that McCarthy and his friends would
go after him after the broadcast but insisted on
doing it.
■ Made sure there was not “Achilles’ Heel”
in him, his group and his argument.
■ Was the journalist at the time and had the best
team: fascinating writing, editing, production, etc.
■ Spent two month editing the film.

14. Murrow
on “See it Now”
March 9, 1954
■ featured excerpts from the senator’s own
speeches, interspersed with Murrow’s comments,
which pointed out the contradictions in McCarthy
■ “a magnificant controlled fury, handsome and
composed -- an attitude all the most effective
because the public knew that he could be genial
and easygoing on camera” -- Nicholas Lemann

15. Fairness
Doctrine
■ The Doctrine required broadcast licensees to
present contentious issues in an honst, equal, and
balanced manner and to afford persons or groups
criticized during such a broadcast the opportunity
to respond on the air.
■ Since Murrow, with his producer Friendly, did
a half-hour program focused on the criticism of
McCarthy, CBS also had to give McCarthy an
half-hour program to defend himself.

16. McCarthy
on “See it Now”
April 6, 1954
2:00 - 3:29
■ Overall disastrous
■ Uncomfortable on TV
■ Personal attack on Murrow, calling him “the leader of
the jackal pack”
■ Accused Murrow of engaging in Communist activities
since 20 years ago

17. In 1954, TV
coverage of ArmyMcCarthy, in
which McCarthy
charged the U.S.
Army, also sped
up the downfall of
McCarthy.
The Downfall of McCarthy
■ His popularity declined significantly after the show
■ So did his political influence
■ On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate formally
adopted a resolution censuring — formally reprimanding
— McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.
■ Continued to be senate for another 2 and half years but
his role as a public figure and his political career were
unmistakably ruined. He died 3 years later.

18. Swearing-in ceremony of Edward R. Murrow as
Director of the USIA
Call to Duty
■ CBS, weary of controversy, cancelled “See It
Now”
■ Murrow was disillusioned about the medium
and took the job from John F. Kennedy as head of
the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in 1961.
■ Since 1953, USIA, the U.S. government agency
waging the “war of ideas” against the Soviet
Union was in charge of “telling America’s story to
the world”.
■ Murrow reinvented the program and made the
agency more results-oriented.
■ Murrow left the agency after Kennedy’s death
and died of cancer in 1965.

19. 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.

20. Video Resoureces in the Presentation
See It Now: clips (4:02-5:44)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELumcSeRuB4
Mar 9, 1954
See It Now: Murrow’s conlusion (all)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anNEJJYLU8M
Mar 9, 1954
See It Now: McCarthy’s Defense (2:00-3:29)
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1065699n
April 6, 1954