Strange intersections - 22 years of politics and art

My uncle was an actor in Czechosolvakia. After signing Charter 77, the government labeled him a dissident. While he was still permitted to act (and get paid) his name could not appear in any of the play's (or film's) billings and he found it increasingly difficult to get work. He was one of more fortunate.

In 1955 Pete Seeger was called before before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where Senator Joe McCarthy accused him, along with many many others, of being a Communist sympathizer. His record label dropped him.

Both are instances of an artist with views that differed from those of the (then) current regime finding themselves persecuted and their artistic careers being curtailed.


Edward R Murrow, in his regular television program, took issue with McCarthy's activities. He concluded his broadcast:

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men".

We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully".

I wonder, parenthetically, what would Murrow have thought of Fox News?