In the 1950's the United States was turning the heat up on so called communist sympathizers from Hollywood by blacklisting them. Its commonly best referred to it as "McCarthyism" and in my mind, I had mostly only heard about the events of the fifties as being the only time of censorship of communism.
This is article is amazing in the sense that talks about what happened not with Hollywood and the filmmakers, but also what happened with broadcasting. Even though its happened over almost six decades ago, this era of American culture shapes a lot of how we look at the 50's and the cold war today.
It really shows the differences in the roles that the media played back then and how much influence the government had in compare to today. I can say that if I had never heard about the broadcasting side of the story made me always think that the west coast just must of alway been more progressive. But armed with what I know now, it completes a more complete and clearer picture.
It shows how involved the government was in trying to sway the public opinion in one direction away from communism. You can also draw comparisons with the fear mongering done by the current white house admistrastion about terrorism and other mundane issues.
5 comments:
Yes it is interesting to see and realize how much our media and government has changed over the last 50, 60 years. In ways we have come so far and in other ways we still have far to go.
It is interesting to see how the government had an impact on the media in the 1950's. I still see it in the media today, but not as much as it did in those times.
The 50's dealt with communism and today we deal with terrorism. However, broadcasting of such issues is a touchy subject.
I do agree that in the 50's that they were gearing the public to one direction. Today the media tries to gear us into one direction, but we have viewed our opinions more expressively than we did nearly 50 years ago.
It's amazing to see how much our government has impacted to media, today and even more so in the 50's. By seeing how they tried to make everyones views onesided back then makes me glad that I wasn't around then, and can now have my own opinion, even if they try to focus it in one direction or another.
I think the juxtaposition of power between media and government has just recently, within the past decade, developed into a "yin and yang" relationship. It is hard to imagine today that government could have that much control over our lifestyles and beliefs systems.
It is also hard to imagine that the government had that big of a stronghold on Hollywood. Boy how times have changed. Now, Hollywood is the one influencing government issues. I suppose ALOT can happen in 50 years.
I think its great that we can now, fifty years later, have our opinions and not have to fear the goverment. A lot has changed and for the better. It is hard to believe that anyone could ahve controlled Hollywood and what was broadcasted but those were different times. Now even if the media may lean to one thing or opinion we are free to choose our own without hesitation or fear.
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