Edward R. Murrow, the â??white knightâ? of American broadcasting, is often credited with having ended the communists-in-government witch-hunt of Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Cold War.
Murrow supposedly demolished the McCarthy scourge in a 30-minute television program, See It Now, that aired on CBS on March 9, 1954. The show made notably effective use of footage of the senatorâ??s words, actions, and sometimes-bizarre conduct.
By doing that show, it is said, Murrow stood up to McCarthy when no one else wouldâ??or dared.
That, however, is a media-driven mythâ??a dubious tale about the news media that masquerades as factual.
As I write in my new myth-busting book, Getting It Wrong, Murrow was very late in confronting McCarthy, doing so long after other journalistsâ??among them muckraking columnist Drew Pearsonâ??had become persistent and searching critics of the senator, his record, and his tactics.
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