Hyperbole doesn't help...
From a PFAW fund raising e-mail asking to help fight the new McCarthyism:
The new McCarthyism has many faces. These modern-day Joe McCarthys and Roy Cohns are right wing media outlets like FOX News and hate-filled web sites like World Net Daily where so many of the attacks originate.
They are members of Congress who block every presidential nominee whose been affiliated with a progressive organization or cause, or the members who call for a witch hunt of Muslim congressional interns, accusing them of being "spies" simply because of their religion.
That's not McCarthyism. A member calling for a witch hunt and accusing somebody of spying is deplorable but unless they are running a committee on the subject and ruining people's careers, it is not McCarthyism. Fox News may similarly be deplorable, but our history is replete with examples of this kind of behavior from various press outlets. Still it's not McCarthyism.
Let's be clear here. McCarthyism was when we were actively hunting down communists and persecuting people who had the slightest whiff of maybe being a communist. It was a time when journalists were asked to sign loyalty oaths to the government. No, this isn't even close to McCarthyism. I don't like it, but it's largely par for the course in our evolving political discourse.
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sterno) wrote,
