Page 95 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States
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                                                                    as a consultant
                 journalists  and potential  employers. Maynard  was  soon hired MCCARTHY, JOSEPH
                 affirmative  action  with  the  Gannett  Co.
                   In  1979 Gannett  appointed  him editor  of the Oakland Tribune. In  1983 May-
                 nard  purchased  the  newspaper  and  became  the  first  African  American  to  have
                 a  controlling  interest  in  a city  daily  with  general  circulation.  Moreover,  he  was
                 the  first  big  city  editor  in  recent  times  to  buy  the  newspaper  for  which  he
                 worked.  Gannett  financed  the  purchase.  In  1985  the  newspaper's  circulation
                 surpassed  150,000, but  it  suffered  from  a continuing  decrease  in display  adver-
                 tising,  and  Maynard  was  diagnosed  with  prostate  cancer.  As  a  result,  he  sold
                 the  newspaper  to the Alameda  Newspaper  Group in  1992. He died  of  cancer  in
                 August  1993  at the  age  of  56.

                 SOURCE: Current Biography  Yearbook,  1993.
                                                                         Will  Norton


                 MCCARTHY,     JOSEPH   (1908-1957).  The  junior  senator  from  Wisconsin
                  turned  U.S. politics  upside  down  in  a  speech  on  February  9,  1950,  to  a  small
                  group  in Wheeling, West Virginia.  He claimed  he had  a list  of  205  communists
                  working  in  the  Department  of  State,  but  his  numbers  almost  immediately
                  changed.  In  the  end,  McCarthy  provided  scant  specifics  of  his  charges—few
                  names  and even less proof. But the allegation  led to several years  of  communist
                  "witch-hunts"  at  all  levels  of  government,  a  "red  scare"  that  would  come  to
                  bear  his  name:  "McCarthyism."  Suspected  communists  lost  their jobs,  even  if
                  their  ties  to  the  Communist  Party  were  tenuous  and  decades  old.  Guilt  by  as-
                  sociation  became  the  order  of  the  day.  Workers  in  the  entertainment  industry
                  were  especially  targeted,  and  many  of  them  had  their  careers  ruined  by  being
                  "blacklisted."  Loyalty  oaths  and  loyalty  review  boards  became  a  requirement
                  for  public  service. The  press  played  a key  role  in McCarthy's  rise  as it  eagerly
                  reported his allegations but failed  to investigate whether there was any substance
                  to  them.  The  McCarthy  phenomenon  was  also  fueled  by  the  infant  medium  of
                  television,  which  often  allowed  him  to  take  his  charges  directly  to  the  public.
                  But  television  also played  a part  in McCarthy's  demise. Edward  R. Murrow, in
                  one  of  the first television  newsmagazine  shows,  See It Now,  took  McCarthy  to
                  task  for his smear tactics. McCarthy  was given the opportunity  to reply by CBS,
                  and he was  an implausible  buffoon  in his response. McCarthy  continued  to lose
                  credibility  until  censured  by  the  Senate  on  December  2,  1954,  for  improper
                  conduct.  He became increasingly  alcoholic  and died three years later, but he  left
                  a  legacy.  The  word  "McCarthyism"  is  still  in  our  political  vocabulary  as  a
                  description  of  guilt-by-association  smearing  of  a political  opponent.
                  SOURCES: Albert Fried, McCarthyism:  The Great American Red Scare,  1997;  Thomas
                  Rosteck,  See It Now Confronts  McCarthyism,  1994; Jim  Tuck, McCarthyism  and New
                  York's Hearst Press,  1995.
                                                                         Marc  Edge
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