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November 1993

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Subject:
From:
PATRICK J OCONNELL <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 27 Nov 1993 16:53:50 -0500
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  Tom Rosteck <[log in to unmask]>  writes:
> I have found the original documentaries produced _during_ the era
> itself to be the best way to introduce undergrads to McCarthyism (and
> they reward in other ways as well).
> Try the CBS _SEE IT NOW_ programs produced and aired from October 1953 to
> April 1954: "The Case of Milo
> Radulovich" is a frightening case study of guilt by association;
> "Argument in Indianapolis" concerns the ACLU and the American Legion
> controversy over free assembly; "Report on Senator McCarthy" is Murrow
> and Friendly's direct assault on the force at the center of the
> McCarthyism movement; "McCarthy's Reply" aired on SEE IT NOW shows the
> Senator confirming, in his attack on Murrow, what all his critics
> long suspected about his tactics; "Annie Lee Moss Before the
> McCarthy Committee" is charged coverage of the abuses of the
> McCarthyite's "investigative techniques."
> Aside from introducing the students to the original figures in the era,
> the documentaries ALSO reward by showing examples of _SEE IT NOW_ the
> earliest and seminal documentary series and represent a means to suggest
> comparison with techniques and aesthetics of documentary practice today.
> The "McCarthy Report" and "Reply" programs were slightly edited and
> included on a forty minute 16mm film available from McGraw-Hill
> films.  I have seen this film in public library collections and media
> centers in many places so I would think that you should be able to find
> it without much difficulty.  The other programs have a much more limited
> circulation.
>
  You might also want to see if you can locate a copy of OPERATION ABOLITION
(I believe that's the correct title), a film that HUAC made and distributed
by demanding newfilm of demonstrations against the Committee at a San
Francisco(?) hearing.  The HUAC version contained many distortions of the
facts of the demonstration.  There was a later remake of that film, titled
OPERATION ??????????(help, somebody) that debunked the HUAC version; as I
recall, the remake didn't get as much circulation as the HUAC version, but
it made a useful counterpoint for those who had an opportunity to see it.
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