Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press (review)

Over the past half-century, McCarthyism’s paranoia about communist infiltration of the movie and television industries, higher education, government, and the military has been examined for the national pathology that it was. Absent from these previous analyses of McCarthyism’s patriotic excesses were the attacks on newspaper journalists who were suspected of communism, and the cowardly response of many publishers and professional organizations that were supposed to represent the interests of the Fourth Estate. Edward Alwood supplies this missing chapter in Dark Days in the Newsroom, a meticulously researched historical study that focuses on the congressional inquisition led in 1955 by Mississippi Senator James Eastland.

As chair of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, Eastland specifically targeted journalists who had been active in the Newspaper Guild, but his insinuations of wrongdoing fell disproportionately on the newsroom of The New York Times, whose editorial page frequently differed with him on such issues as the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and the McCarran Immigration Act. The stigma of Eastland’s subpoenas ended dozens of newspaper careers; the testimony of witnesses destroyed friendships and reputations; and journalists’ defiant assertions of constitutional protection under the First and Fifth Amendments brought contempt citations, lengthy court battles, and, in some cases, jail sentences.

Alwood’s study makes three significant contributions. First, through a far-reaching and painstaking analysis of FBI records, many obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, Alwood brings into the public domain new information about McCarthyism’s conspiracy against the press and the FBI’s complicity. Relying as well on congressional archives, interviews, and the correspondence and records of key journalists, Alwood’s investigation yields a comprehensive record of this largely forgotten democratic crisis.

Second, in providing constitutional context for this analysis, Alwood demonstrates the grave implications of the attacks on journalists’ freedom of thought and association. In this narrative, those who acquiesced to McCarthyism’s intimidation are as deserving of our sordid fascination as the patriotic bullies who abused their congressional power. Heading this list are the newspaper editors and publishers who fired journalists for daring to claim a First or Fifth Amendment protection against the Eastland Committee’s demand for their testimony. Alwood emphasizes that McCarthyism’s power lay in its ability to cow principled people and reduce them to self-serving cowards.

Finally, by juxtaposing his historical analysis with discussion of the 2005 federal grand jury investigation into the Valerie Plame leaks and the subsequent jailing of reporter Judith Miller, Alwood reminds us that the Constitution remains a tenuous shield against government assault on civil liberties. As long as journalists have no specific legal protection against the subpoena, the Eastland inquisition cannot be viewed as an aberration.

The sole weakness in Alwood’s book is in his failure to develop all of his characters. His portrait of James Eastland, the main villain in this tale, is particularly thin, which seems odd, given the wealth of material available on this bombastic white supremacist. Eastland’s personality, which was stamped on his politics, and the context provided by his long record of opposition to civil liberties for huge segments of humanity deserves better play.