(Originally published by the Daily News on March 10, 1954. This story was written by Charles McHarry and Leeds Moberley.)
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy declaration of war on the two major radio and television networks for refusing him air time to reply to Adlai Stevenson brought an answering barrage last night from an official of the Columbia Broadcast System. It was followed by an offer of free time to the Senator, if he chose to reply.
On his nationwide TV program, “See It Now,” Edward R. Murrow — who is a member of the CBS board of directors as well as its top newscaster — used the Wisconsin Republican’s own filmed and tape-recorded voice to portray him as a man employing the half-truth as a “staple” and “repeatedly stepping over the line between investigating and persecuting.”
“His primary achievement,” said Murrow, “has been in confusing the public mind as between internal and external threats of Communism… the actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies.”
Offers Use of Program.
Murrow offered McCarthy the use of the same program for a reply if he “believes we have done violence to his words or pictures and desires to speak, to answer himself.” But he also called upon everybody who opposes McCarthy’s methods — or who approves them — to speak up.
Warning that “we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,” he declared “this is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent — or for those who approve.”
As soon as Murrow signed off at 11 P.M., the CBS telephone switchboard was swamped with calls, some of them from as far away as Chicago, and the overwhelming majority of them endorsed Murrow’s stand.
By 2:30 A.M. the network had received 1,046 congratulatory telegrams and 13 protesting the program. It also received 2,211 congratulatory telephone calls and 149 telephoned protests. A CBS spokesman said those telephoning congratulations included Margaret Truman and Senator Mike Monroney (D-Okla.).
The CBS outlet in Washington, WTOP-TV, received 238 phone calls in 45 minutes — the heaviest run since Vice President Richard M. Nixon’s defense of his expense fund during the 1952 campaign — and said all but eight were pro-Murrow and anti-McCarthy.
In Philadelphia, 84 out of 88 calls were for Murrow, but elsewhere the reaction varied. In some cities it was light; Los Angeles’ CBS outlet found its switchboard tied up for two hours by the “terrific” response but the callers were divided about 50-50.
Joe Didn’t See It.
McCarthy himself, who had blasted the networks yesterday as “dishonest,” “arrogant” and “unmoral,” had no immediate comment. At his Washington home his wife said he had gone to sleep “several hours ago” and hadn’t seen the program.
Recalling McCarthy’s comment that his opposition came from “left wing press,” Murrow at one point held up several newspapers and quoted from their critical statements about McCarthy in his recent dispute with the Army.
The papers included the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times-Herald, the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Washington Star, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Milwaukee Journal.
Shows Films of Questioning.
Among the films Murrow showed were excerpts from a recent McCarthy speech attacking Brig. Gen. Ralph W. Zwicker, commanding officer at Camp Kilmer, N.J., as a disgrace to the uniform.
Other films showed McCarthy questioning Reed Harris, former head of the U.S. Information Service, about a book Harris wrote in 1932.
During the questioning, McCarthy said twice that the American Civil Liberties Union, which once helped Harris in a legal dispute, was on the Attorney general’s “subversive” list. Actually, said Murrow, the ACLU never was on the list.
McCarthy, who was in town yesterday for a luncheon appearance as guest of the Dutch Treat Club in the Hotel Park Lane, has lashed out at both CBS and NBC for their “arrogant” and “unmoral” treatment of him.
He said at a news conference after the luncheon that Vice President was “and excellent choice to reply for the Republican Party” but insisted “Stevenson’s main attack was against me” and therefore he was entitled to air time.
Shoves Lens Away.
Several times during the conference McCarthy refused to talk to NBC or CBS reporters or pose for their cameramen.
“Your companies have been completely dishonest and unmoral.”
At one point the Senator shoved aside an NBC lens aimed in his direction. “You’re a good young fellow and I like you personally,” he told the photographer, “but I will not pose for you.”
McCarthy said he had lost no sleep over a telephoned threat on his life at the Waldorf-Astoria Monday night. “If someone is going to kill you, he doesn’t call you up and tell you about it,” he said.
