A Car in Every Garage, A Red in Every Shed
Lie Big or Go Home
Speaking of shameless propaganda and inducements to rash action, on June 22, 1950, the pamphlet-style screed Red Channels made its debut, purporting to name 151 actors, writers, musicians, broadcast journalists, and others in the context of Communist manipulation of the entertainment industry. Among those fingered were Orson Welles, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, Burgess Meredith, Dorothy Parker, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Artie Shaw.
The pamphlet was a special edition of the publication “Counterattack,” a periodical produced in turn by American Business Consultants, Inc., the proto-right-wing think tank founded by textile importer-John Bircher Arthur Kohlberg and three disgruntled FBI agents.
The tract came three years after formation of the original House Un-American Activities Committee, and three months after Joe McCarthy’s infamous speech in Wheeling WV. It shrilly claimed active Communist efforts through “(S)everal commercially sponsored dramatic series used as sounding boards, particularly with reference to current issues in which the Party is critically interested: ‘academic freedom,’ ‘civil rights,’ ‘peace,’ the H-bomb, etc … With radios in most American homes and with approximately 5 million TV sets in use ….”
In its format, Red Channels listed the 151 professionals in entertainment and on-air journalism whom it clearly implied were among “the Red Fascists and their sympathizers” in the broadcasting field. Each of the names was followed by a raw list of ostensibly telling data, with the sources of evidence varying from FBI and HUAC citations to newspaper articles culled from the mainstream press, industry trade sheets, and such Communist publications as the Daily Worker.
Scores of those individuals named in the full Hollywood Blacklist lost employment, income and standing within their communities, and often, their own families. In the end, Red Channels caused some of those named, Pete Seeger among them, to fight publicly to prove their “loyalty” to the United States. Still others caved in to the pressure to repudiate their political pasts and provide the HUAC with names of other suspected prominent leftists.
Several of those who named names, like director Elia Kazan and writer Bud Schulberg, argued for years after that they had made an ethically proper decision. Others, like actor Lee J. Cobb and director Michael Gordon, who gave friendly testimony to HUAC after suffering on the blacklist for a time, “conceded with remorse that their plan was to name their way back to work.”
And then there were those more gravely haunted by the choice they had made; in 1963, actor Sterling Hayden declared, “I was a rat, a stoolie, and the names I named of those close friends were blacklisted and deprived of their livelihood.”
There are many handy modern analogs for this BS inside the US, including but not limited to hysteria surrounding: QAnon; groomers; Antifa; illegals; Stop the Steal (aka the election was rigged); dogs and cats for dinner in Ohio. On the international stage, things can get a little more complicated, to wit, Israel, a nation whose existence I strongly support, cannot seem to escape the thrall of one of the world’s most skilled propagandists. In a low, melliflous voice, their indicted PM Bibi Netanyahu has lead his nation in the killing of 108 arabs for every jewish victim who perishsed on October 7th (+/- 130,000 in Gaza and the West Bank). And much of the world doesn’t bat an eye.
This assymetry and irony have been picture perfect, following principals laid down in the mid-1930s: constantly repeat just a few ideas; use stereotyped phrases; give only one side of the argument; continuously criticize your opponents; pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification. So perfect, in fact, that Bibi finally convinced the softest target, our sitting POTUS, to do the bidding he’s been after since Bill Clinton was in office (insert bombs here). If Bibi was correct going all the way back to when he first cried wolf in 1993, that Iran was “weeks away” from a dirty nuke, there’s a good chance for a suitcase bomb and sleeper cell in Every Town, USA.
I would keep my family away from any population centers or fireworks displays this July 4. And here, our story of venal propaganda, cruelty and hysteria posing as patriotism and decency endeth.
