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Mister Pulitzer and the SpiderModern News from Realism to the Digital$
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Mister Pulitzer and the Spider: Modern News from Realism to the Digital

Kevin G. Barnhurst

Print publication date: 2016

Print ISBN-13: 9780252040184

Published to Illinois Scholarship Online: April 2017

DOI: 10.5406/illinois/9780252040184.001.0001

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The “What” Waned in Broadcast News

The “What” Waned in Broadcast News

Chapter:
(p.86) Chapter 8 The “What” Waned in Broadcast News
Source:
Mister Pulitzer and the Spider
Author(s):

Kevin G. Barnhurst

Publisher:
University of Illinois Press
DOI:10.5406/illinois/9780252040184.003.0008

This chapter analyzes changes in news event coverage. In early 1950, when Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy mounted his virulent attacks accusing the Truman administration of harboring Communists in the State Department, the press simply reported who said what. The Republican Party won the 1952 election and took control of the Senate, and McCarthy became committee chair and expanded his attacks, going after defense industries, universities, and the broadcasters themselves. ABC Television came into national prominence by airing the hearings about supposed Communist infiltration of the U.S. Army, riveting national attention with the live proceedings. But the events could not really speak for themselves, a discovery that seemed to expose a weakness in realism. Every name named exacted a human cost, as McCarthy dragged innocent individuals into the public eye, and his baseless accusations harmed their relationships and destroyed their livelihoods. The consequences, although not lost on the press, were not in themselves news events as then defined.

Keywords:   news events, newsgathering, media coverage, Joseph R. McCarthy, news reporting, realism

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