From the television documentary series ‘See It Now’, hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow, which was broadcast on March 9, 1954. Edward R. Murrow’s post report comments on Joe McCarthy:
“His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. 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, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. [...]
We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully.”
It’s my opinion that Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Fox News, Rush, Etc have become the modern voices of McCarthyism. I love this quote: “We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.”
I’m waiting for the modern Margaret Chase Smith…I’m on 10 about it actually..we need it!
digitalhistory.com
Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to both houses of Congress. She was the first woman to enter the Senate without being appointed to the position. During World War II, she was the only civilian woman to go to sea in a Navy ship in wartime. She was also the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party convention. With only a high school education, she entered politics after her husband, a Republican member of Congress, died. She served four terms in the House and four terms in the Senate.
Smith, known as “the conscience of the Senate,” gained a reputation for courage and independence when she became the first person in Congress to condemn the anti-communist witch hunt led by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. In a 15-minute speech on June 1, 1950, barely a year after entering the Senate, she denounced McCarthy for destroying reputations with his reckless charges about Communists and “fellow travelers” in government. She never mentioned the anti-communist crusader by name; although, no one doubted who she referred to. She told the Senate it was time to stop conducting “character assassination” behind “the shield of congressional immunity.”
Smith then read a “Declaration of Conscience,” signed by six fellow Republicans. “The nation sorely needs a Republican victory,” she declared, “but I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny [misrepresentation]–fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear.”
McCarthy threatened to destroy her political career. But she was so highly regarded that voters easily re-elected her to the Senate. Many speculated that she would run for president in 1952. Asked what she would do if she woke up in the White House, she replied: “I’d go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. And then I’d go home.”