Between 1950 and 1954, Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade created a schism in the journalistic interpretive community with publishers and editors being forced by the public nature of their work to choose sides. When he called New York Post Editor James A. Wechsler before his committee in 1953 to answer for his newspaper’s editorial policy, McCarthy brought that schism into clear focus. Wechsler’s determination to obtain the release of the hearing transcript as evidence of McCarthy’s true aims led to his capitulation with McCarthy’s demands that he name names. In the aftermath of his appearance, Wechsler asked his journalistic colleagues to determine whether or not a congressional inquiry into editorial policy constituted a threat to press freedom. In a time clouded by the madness of McCarthyism and despite the clarity of Wechsler’s argument that intimidation of any journalist represents a threat to all, the brightest editors of the time were unable to agree even with that fundamental assertion.
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