Soon after moving to the DC area, I recall hearing a particularly informed anecdote about Senator Joseph McCarthy of red-baiting ‘Communist conspiracy’ fame, the man who gave McCarthyism a bad name.

In McCarthy’s time there existed a government entity called the Legislative Reference Service, precursor to the present Congressional Research Service (CRS), which handles reference questions on an extensive range of topics for members of Congress and congressional staffers. Condensing for brevity, what happened was that McCarthy, already in full throat at the time, actually got in touch – quietly and behind the scenes -- with the then director of the Legislative Reference Service. In effect McCarthy said to the guy, ‘I called up because I need your help. I’ve just said that there are [56 or some such number, whatever the number was] Communists in the State Department, and I CAN’T FIND THEM.’ [emphasis added] He needed the reference service to confirm the actual number for him and to provide the names. 

My informant commented that the anecdote was a first for him as a political scientist; he had never heard before that McCarthy cared or attempted to discover whether his accusations were valid.

History has amply demonstrated by now that Joe McCarthy, a troubled man with alcohol problems among other problems, should never have gotten into the Senate and should never have been listened to once he got in. He accused everybody from Eisenhower on down of caving in to or of actively colluding with the Soviets; he turned American citizens against each other by saying or implying that a bunch of stodgy Democratic congressmen – mostly World War II veterans – were somehow eager to see Soviet tanks in our suburban back yards; and he bullied and intimidated the press and all three branches of government. Not only did he cause direct harm to American citizens including the late poet John Beecher, in the process, he also contributed to the political tone that subsequently enabled Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan to get into office, and to build political careers, by questioning the patriotism of other candidates. The wonderful film Good Night, and Good Luck conveys the tone in black, white and shades of gray, and one of the most touching anecdotes I have read about Dan Rather is that reportedly he has viewed the movie more than once, probably as a kind of morale boost for journalism. (So have I.)

 

But in the midst of all that bad news coming from McCarthyism, the above anecdote reveals that at some point, public attention actually had the potential to do something positive for McCarthy, if only momentarily: at some juncture, all the national attention actually induced him to think briefly about what he was doing.

For other millions of Americans to evaluate Joseph McCarthy's charges or his power, with no Legislative Reference Service to turn to, they had to rely pretty much on the usual channels of daily newspapers and a little television.

But newspaper and television personnel were part of the cohort exactly most liable to be intimidated by McCarthy. It wasn’t gas-pump or service station attendants who were turning each other in as Communists, during the heyday of McCarthyism, or the super-rich. It was white-collarites – people with enough of the tangible rewards of material life so that they had something to lose, but not so much as to be immune, people who couldn’t duck below or fly over the radar screen. McCarthy’s target audience was neither garbage men nor neurosurgeons. His target demographic was people likely to be affected by the news business, a merit class of sorts with professional rules intangible enough, standards and status markers variable enough, so they could be manipulated. His leverage was threats against their stock in trade, reputation.

This was the group – not the ‘big middle,’ but a small middle – most vulnerable to the ordeal of “naming names” – writers and editors, journalists, college professors, lawyers, politicians and even entertainers.

The broad concern here is that the United States today is faced with the same kind of pressures and ills involved in red-baiting, but with ‘communism’ replaced by ‘terrorism’. Anyone who points out that the world is full of young males who might potentially be induced to do harm, and that there are better ways of forestalling some of the harm than by invading Iraq, is in danger of having his/her patriotism questioned. Not for nothing has GWBush hired as his immediate attorney Fred Fielding, who lawyered RMNixon during Watergate. And while the back-stabbing and other betrayals go on at home, genuine public health and public safety problems get neglected.

A somewhat narrower concern is that alert and vibrant news media can make a difference, but several of our biggest media outlets seem to have the goal of making as little difference as possible.

Narrowing down a bit more – some prominent media figures also tend to pat themselves on the back for all the punishment they take. This claim should be taken with a grain of salt. The GOP noise machine has indeed done a lot of harm – but that harm could have been alleviated, and could still be alleviated, if some of its targets would just share with the public in an open, transparent and accountable way.

When there are behind-the-scenes pressures on print media or television networks to prevent them from reporting what is happening in Iraq or in the administration, the large media outlets have an obligation to report those pressures themselves to the public.

And when our government tries to plant an item with the news media, the media have an obligation to report that attempt itself to the public.

 More on this later.