McCarthy—our first film of 2020 premiering January 6 at 9/8 central chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator whose zealous anti-communist crusade would test the limits of American decency and democracy. After years in the headlines, he was brought down by his own excesses and overreach. But his name lives on, linked to the modern-day witch hunt we call "McCarthyism."
Don't miss our season premiere, McCarthy, next Monday night at 9/8 central. Click here for an extended sneak preview.
In 1953, author Langston Hughes was called before senator Joseph McCarthy's Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing. The private, closed-door interrogation pitted Hughes against the Subcommittee's chief counsel, Roy Cohn.
We dramatized the actual hearing transcripts of Hughes' testimony in this digital short film.
Courtesy of Library of Congress.
Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln famously issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. "All persons," Lincoln wrote, "held as slaves within any State in rebellion shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."
Though this proclamation was limited in its power and scope, it represented an important step towards freedom and equality for African Americans during the height of the Civil War.
This clip from our film The Abolitionists shares more about the moment Lincoln announces freedom for all the enslaved.
Major funding for American Experience provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance, Consumer Cellular and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Additional funding provided by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, The Documentary Investment Group, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers. American Experienceis produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.
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McCarthy was right in both the literal sense and figurative. And Joe was not even aware of the Venona Project that demonstrated the widespread infiltration of the highest positions of government by communist agents of the Soviet Union.
ReplyDeleteJoe himself would probably have been amazed as to how right he was.
Who would McCarthy go after today?Trump-who the Dems say is a Russian agent-or the Dems--who we KNOW are commie traitors.
ReplyDelete--GRA
Thanks for the heads-up. I set my DVR to record it. I was a few months short of my seventh birthday when McCarthy died and have no memory of him. My father (who was a hard-line old school Democrat) never mentioned Joe McCarthy. I don't recall McCarthy being discussed in school. And very little by my liberal professors when I was in college in the late 60's-early 70's.
ReplyDeleteMy view is the liberals who have the hangups. They rail about "anti-Communist paranoia." They themselves are the most paranoid people who ever lived.
Our friend Red Eddie is always whining about "the McCarthyite witch hunts" in his TCM intros. In fact, McCarthy never said a thing about the film industry.
Many leftists are too stupid to know HUAC was part of Congress and Joe McCarthy was a Senator.
The Army-McCarthy Hearings weren't investigating the Army, it was Joe McCarthy who was being investigated.
Want to bet thus PBS program concludes Donald Trump is the New Joe McCarthy and the reason for his support is the same?