Edward R Murrow vs Joe McCarthy

[zeemike]

It is always informative to look at the past.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[plethoro]

1. Murrow was the best newsman ever. No one even close

to him although Cronkite was good. What is out there now is entertainers...circus clowns.

[zeemike]

3. He had integrity.

something that is lacking today.

[MrMickeysMom]

2. "Who has served their country better?"

Indeed.

Edward R Murrow will go down in permanence as someone in news who made a difference. He's seen no equal ...

Well, I used to think almost as highly of Keith Olbermann, to be truthful. Still hope I can say that someday.

But, until that day, I guess the people who throw sunshine on injustices and stand up for this or any other country will have to be US individually. I certainly am doing this in my own way where I live.

We have to follow Edward R Murrow in that endeavor, or everything he wanted to be remembered for will not matter.

[Archae]

4. And nowadays?

Nowadays, the Freepers, Ann Coulter and the Teabaggers consider McCarthy to be a "hero" and Murrow to have been a "communist."

[zeemike]

6. Yep...stupid did not die out.

They would love to bring back the HUAC with a new Joe if they could.

[Archae]

7. But instead of "communist" they'd substitute "Islamist."

Just look at Louie Gomert, and Michelle Bachmann.

[zeemike]

5. It is hard to have that kind of integrity in today's world.

I think Doberman would have liked to have had it, but was just not able through no fault of his own.
But how we live our lives is the most important thing...and how we teach our children to do the same is second.

[GTurck]

8. I remember...

the McCarthy years. Even as a 12 year old there was a fear of being heard to say anything critical of the man. We were homogenized so much that we exploded in the '60's against that. It was a time when being different in any way made you suspect.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. A normal form of the conspiracy against "the different"...

... to recognize (as some during that error) we are all different, but share common things, I think infuriated Joe McCarthy. You were suspect for creatively telling stories.

I recognize what seems to have survived out of that McCarthy era... FEAR, LOATHING, conspiracy against "the different"...

This is a good thread, and we ought to keep it going...

kick!

[zeemike]

10. Yep, I remember the red scare too

And what Murrow said was right...it was not McCarthy's fault...it was ours for letting it happen.

[Demo_Chris]

11. Amazing. I was not alive for that stuff...

I've read and heard about it, but only a little. One thing that is instantly apparent from that tape: Edward R. Murrow was a brave man and a hero.

Another thought which struck me was more a question I will look into myself. In recent times has the Republican party EVER operated on anything other than fear and division? It certainly seems to be a pattern.

Does anyone have any good books they can recommend about the McCarthy era?

[zeemike]

12. I think you would have to go way back to Eisenhower administration

To see a time when they did not operate on fear...
But it was the civil rights era that changed things...the southern racist abandoned the democrat party when Johnson passed the civil rights bill and the GOP under Nixon welcomed them in...called the southern strategy.
and ever sense then they have cultivated that fear and loathing for political gain.
I don't know of any books on that subject but I bet there are some good ones and maybe someone here can help.

[Demo_Chris]

15. I was thinking Southern Strategy and Reagan's Soviet menace when I wrote that.

And let's not forget Bush's War for Terror
The War on Drugs
The War on Pornography
etc

I'm sure both parties do this sometimes and to a certain extent, everyone does, but it seems like the GOP has nothing but invented fears to run on.

[ChazInAz]

13. I was just a kid.

I still recall my parent's fear. Dad was in the Air Force, and our name is very Russian. It didn't matter that our family had been in America since the late 1700's, we were still suspect. My folk's joy at Tailgunner Joe's political downfall and eventual death in a padded cell was a thing to behold and a fine example of schadenfreude.
John McCain reminded me of that toad during the Secretary of Defense hearings the other day. Someone should gently take Johnny aside and quietly remind him of what happened to McCarthy.
"Sic semper", Senator McCain.

[zeemike]

14. Well my family had a very anglo Saxon name and so we had no problem.

but I would not have liked to have a Russian one at that time....it was bad enough if you just looked a little different.
I remember it not so much as fear as excitement....that they were uncovering all these "communist cells" everywhere...even in the small town I lived in.
I was not old enough to understand just what this meant or that this was just a bunch of political shit being stirred up by a madman.
I only saw one clip of the hearings with McCain but you are right...same crap.