78 years ago during the rise of McCarthyism in the United States, a group of 10 men,

screenwriters, filmmakers, producers, and the like were summoned to Washington, D.C., to answer questions

before a congressional panel called the House on American Activities Committee,

Huac, for short. The panel had a simple question for them. Are you or have you ever been a member

of the Communist Party? If the answer was yes, the panel wanted to know who else you knew or suspected

to be a communist or a communist sympathizer. The men refused to cooperate and they refused to name

names. One day later, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved citations against them

for contempt of Congress. Those men became known as the Hollywood Ten. They were the first group of

people to be systematically blacklisted in Hollywood, shut out of the industry for known or

suspected ties

to the Communist Party or its ideology. That was emblematic of the Red Scare, an era when

paranoia ran high among the people of this country because the political climate encouraged

citizens to keep an eye out on each other and report on American activities. And that was only

the beginning. Two and a half years later,

this book was published, Red Channels, the Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television.

It was published by three former FBI agents who used their ties to the government and Whoack

to compile a list of 151 people in media that they believed had communist connections.

The list included people like the actor and director Orson Wells, the composer Leonard Bernstein,

and the folk singer, Peeked Seeger. A lot of you may remember that ugly chapter in American

politics. Well, it seems the book may have been reopened. About a week ago, the White House debuted a media bias page on its official government website.

It features a media offender of the week and a section called Offender Hall of Shame.

It also lists specific stories and journalists with which the White House has taken issue for one reason or another.

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