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  • Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture
  • Megan Mullen (bio)
Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. By Thomas Doherty. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Pp. ix+305. $27.95.

Cold War, Cool Medium is an engaging and complex account of U.S. commercial television during the 1950s—specifically, the period and concept that have been labeled "McCarthyism." Thomas Doherty has read and reread a wealth of original source documents (including publications ranging from the Washington Postto Variety to TV Guide, as well as archived television programs) to make sense of a larger cultural picture. He argues persuasively against the "conventional wisdom" in which "television is cast as coconspirator in the conformities and repressions of Cold War America" (p. 2). Instead, he claims, television by its very nature allowed the name-callers to expose their own ridiculousness to the nation. Television's characteristic openness and participatory nature (its "coolness") proved antithetical to their unfounded accusations.

Cold War, Cool Medium includes several very strong chapters that elaborate this. Chapter 5, "Forums of the Air," for example, traces the parallels between President Eisenhower's progressive self-distancing from McCarthy's accusatory politics and his own development of an increasingly telegenic personality. Eisenhower became increasingly chatty in his televised appearances and willing to be telecast while relaxing at home. It would seem that such a cool demeanor would be out of sync with the hot-headed senator. Of course, as Doherty's writing makes apparent, Eisenhower's televisual appeal owed at least as much to the medium's multicausal evolution as to his own efforts to cultivate it for political benefit.

The president was hardly the only politician helped by the intrusive live cameras. Chapter 6, "Roman Circuses and Spanish Inquisitions," begins with a look at the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce hearings of 1951, headed by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. These hearings turned out to be a natural for the television screen, as a [End Page 888] cast of real-life characters from America's notorious crime families testified about their colorful and shocking misdeeds. Kefauver found himself an unexpected television celebrity.

Chapter 8, "Edward R. Murrow Slays the Dragon of Joseph McCarthy," is equally fascinating. Here, Doherty traces the rise of Murrow as a star telejournalist (having carried over his notoriety from radio). He portrays Murrow as a deft exploiter of television's cool potential, alternating hard-nosed reporting in See It Now with the softer Person to Person, in which Murrow interviewed individuals in their own homes. Doherty's discussion of Murrow encapsulates the main argument of Cold War, Cool Medium. As Doherty explains, "television depended upon the very freedoms of expression and access that McCarthyism sought to shut down. Ultimately, the insatiable demand for material—more thought, more talk, more tales, more personalities—would override the timidity of the medium in the presence of power" (pp. 162-63).

Most chapters offer this sort of subtle support for the author's thesis. As a whole, however, Doherty could be clearer and more direct in making his case. Chapter 4, "Hypersensitivity," for one, needs more explanation. This chapter focuses on standards regarding sexuality on television as well as representation of African Americans. Both topics seem intriguing yet incomplete. It would appear that each is meant to demonstrate the power of the television audience in determining programming standards, but it is not clear how either relates to Doherty's main argument. Similarly, the allusions to the work of media theorist Marshall McLuhan and his concepts of "hot" and "cool" media (not least in the book's title) could be more developed. In Understanding Media (1964), McLuhan explains that "cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience." While this theoretical grounding is implicit throughout the book—and clear to anyone familiar with McLuhan's work—it is never discussed directly.

Cold War, Cool Medium adds to the body of work on U.S. television by scholars such as Erik Barnouw, William Boddy, and Lynn Spigel. It also offers a nice complement to the recent volume edited by Lewis L. Gould, Watching Television Come of Age: The New York...

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