Are you now, and have you ever been, a journalist?
Tuesday, March 9, 2004, marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most courageous moments in journalism – the airing of the CBS TV See It Now episode in which Edward R. Murrow exposed the deceit, bullying, and manipulation of the then-powerful Sen. Joseph McCarthy. To commemorate this, on Tuesday NPR aired a thoughtful commentary by Walter Cronkite.
In the 1954 broadcast of “A Report on Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy,” Murrow gave ample voice to the most effective critic of McCarthy’s power and credibility – McCarthy himself…
To compile this piece, Murrow’s crew recorded and collected recordings of McCarthy’s speeches, hearings, and other public appearance, and thus let McCarthy politically hang himself with his own words. The artfulness here was that Murrow did not resort to splicing together out-of-context sound bites (as is often the case with tabloid broadcast journalism today), but rather extensive quotes.
Also, Murrow chose not to quibble on the details of McCarthy’s accusations – such as how many communists might really be employed by the US State Dept. Such a strategy would have left the Red Scare debate firmly in McCarthy’s hands. Rather, Murrow went right to the heart of the issue: That McCarthy was deliberately manipulating and exacerbating public fears of Communism in order to consolidate his personal political power. For instance, here’s my favorite part of the piece, Murrow’s introduction of the topic:
“MURROW: Our working thesis tonight is this question: If this fight against Communism is made a fight against America’s two great political parties, the American people know that one of those parties will be destroyed and the Republic cannot endure very long as a one party system.
We applaud that statement and we think Senator McCarthy ought to. He said it, seventeen months ago in Milwaukee.
MCCARTHY: The American people realize this cannot be made a fight between America’s two great political parties. If this fight against Communism is made a fight between America’s two great political parties the American people know that one of those parties will be destroyed and the Republic cannot endure very long as a one party system.
MURROW: Thus on February 4th, 1954, Senator McCarthy spoke of one party’s treason. This was at Charleston, West Virginia where there were no cameras running. It was recorded on tape.
MCCARTHY: The issue between the Republicans and Democrats is clearly drawn. It has been deliberately drawn by those who have been in charge of twenty years of treason. The hard fact is – the hard fact is that those who wear the label, those who wear the label Democrat wear it with the stain of a historic betrayal.
Brilliant. I think this See It Now episode can stand as a strong example to today’s broadcast journalists.
Today’s politics are complex, but some of the core underlying issues are not – they just need to be discussed more openly. Propaganda campaigns are designed to disguise and repackage issues and concerns in politically or economically useful ways. It takes a courageous journalist to turn away from soundbites and prepackaged political terms of debate in order to ask more basic questions, and to get beyond snippets of sound.
It is still possible to redefine debates and unmask propaganda campaigns, but you can’t do it in brief soundbites. Murrow showed that if you give propaganda of any persuasion enough air time (or links to original documents), and some close examination, it will unmask itself.
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