The Broadcast Century and Beyond, 5th Edition

Chapter FIVE

The Fearful

Broadcasting and Blacklisting—A Decade of Shame

The Cold War that followed the “hot war” of 1939–1945 generated continuing audiences for media news, with the media exulting in their exacerbation of the confrontational atmosphere between the United States and the Soviet governments and people. The 1950s were a time when demagoguery and fear were rampant, both resulting from and engendering the rise of a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph R. McCarthy, whose accusations alone mandated condemnation and ostracizing of thousands of Americans. The atmosphere of McCarthyism allowed labels such as “Commie,” “Red,” “pinko,” “fellow traveler,” and others to cause people’s loss of jobs, expulsion from organizations, eviction from ...