Author: Robert ShoganPublisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description
of McCarthyism, the strategy based on fear, smear, and guilt by association that McCarthy had ridden to prominence, as opposed to his ill-mannered personality. But television overlooked this omission, and as it went on to transform American political debate it exhibited the same shortcomings exposed by the hearings: an emphasis on razzle-dazzle and a reluctance to challenge power and authority. Still today, while television journalists often ask the hard questions of political leaders and experts, Mr. Shogan contends, too often they allow guests to dodge important issues and answer from prepared talking points. The story in No Sense of Decency thus leads to a disturbing irony: while television expedited the downfall of McCarthy, the most notorious practitioner of the politics of fear in our history, a half-century later TV's knee-jerk coverage of the 9/11 tragedy and the "War on Terror" has helped revive the paranoid strain in our political DNA." --Book Jacket.
