Ann Coulter, Joseph McCarthy and Hollywood

I don’t look to Ann Coulter for guidance in forming opinions and, frankly, the lady sometimes scares me. This piece, though, interested me. It’s the first time I can remember McCarthy being portrayed as anything but a buffoon. She makes a case for him being at least partly right.

Also, I know “Hollywood” and “artists” point to long lists of people he wrongly accused and who’s careers were ruined by him. Taking into consideration Clooney’s politics, I have to wonder how that may have slanted his film.

For those interested, and without a link source..

<ul type="square"> Coulter column[/list]

[PoBoy321]

While it's just more biased trash by a lunatic, I'll take a stab at at least some of it.

[ QUOTE ]
As noted here previously, George Clooney's movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," about pious parson Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy, failed to produce one person unjustly accused by McCarthy. Since I described McCarthy as a great American patriot defamed by liberals in my 2003 book, "Treason," liberals have had two more years to produce a person -- just one person -- falsely accused by McCarthy. They still can't do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, there is the fact that of all the hearings held by Joseph McCarthy, not one led to a single conviction of a "Communist subversive" within the US government. So why can't anyone prove that no one was falsely accused? You can't prove a negative beyond a reasonable doubt, at least not in this context. It's impossible to absolutely prove that anyone was falsely accused, it's also impossible to prove a lot of things, but since our justice system is designed the way it is, there is an assumption of innocence.

[ QUOTE ]
Meanwhile, I can prove that Murrow's good friend Lawrence Duggan was a Soviet spy responsible for having innocent people murdered.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is true. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, we do know that there was one, and only one, case in which McCarthy rightly accused someone who was acting as a Soviet spy. On the other hand, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[ QUOTE ]
I believe anyone would find it preferable to have been a "target" of McCarthy in the '50s than to have been an ordinary citizen living in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, the Ukraine or any nation infected by the Red Plague.

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree. I would also say that I'd rather be in an American prison than in a Cambodian slum, but I don't think that that means I should be grateful that I'm (wrongly) sitting in jail. McCarthy used his crusade against supposed Communist subversives as a way to attack New Deal Democrats against whom he had a personal vendetta.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks to McCarthy, and no thanks to Murrow, the worst horror to befall an American citizen in the '50s was the dire prospect of losing a movie credit -- although, since then, I suppose having to watch a George Clooney movie would run a close second.

[/ QUOTE ]

AFAIK, McCarthy never had anything to with preventing any kind of attack on America.

[jt1]

I'm not gonna read her column, but it's been my perception for several years that McCarthy was mostly right about whom he pegged as communists.

The disagreement most Americans have with him on all sides of the political spectrum is that He had no right to peg anyone as anything.

[cdxx]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not gonna read her column, but it's been my perception for several years that McCarthy was mostly right about whom he pegged as communists.

The disagreement most Americans have with him on all sides of the political spectrum is that He had no right to peg anyone as anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

forget his completely unconstitutional methods, and utter uselessness of the witchhunt (alone a disservice to everyone), and the fact that there is nothing wrong about being a communist, as it is quite different from being a spy for the Soviet Union. the disagreement most people have with him on all sides of the political spectrum is that he was an idiot.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not gonna read her column, but it's been my perception for several years that McCarthy was mostly right about whom he pegged as communists.

[/ QUOTE ]
How do you say he was mostly right when he wasn't successful in proving anything he claimed?



[ QUOTE ]
The disagreement most Americans have with him on all sides of the political spectrum is that He had no right to peg anyone as anything.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm baffled by this. His supporters didn't think he had a right to "peg" anyone? Please help me understand.


[ QUOTE ]
forget his completely unconstitutional methods, and utter uselessness of the witchhunt (alone a disservice to everyone), and the fact that there is nothing wrong about being a communist, as it is quite different from being a spy for the Soviet Union. the disagreement most people have with him on all sides of the political spectrum is that he was an idiot.

[/ QUOTE ]
His "method" was Senate hearings. Not what I'd call unconstitutional. The efficacy of Senate hearings I won't argue.

At the time of the hearings there was quite a bit "wrong" with being a communist if you were living in the U.S. That's why he was able to even hold them.

I don't believe he actually ever accused anyone of spying. The fact that you were a "dirty pinko commie" carried the inference that you must also be a spy.

The man wasn't a Mensa candidate, no, but he wasn't an idiot. He was a politician in danger of losing his seat in the Senate. The hearings were designed to get him re-elected.

[whiskeytown]

Coulter is a hag who after getting fired from jobs for being an irresponsible nut has now hanged her hat on the "Defend McCarthy" bandwagon - it's about as popular and as credible as the flat earth society, but that won't stop her.

As far as Clooney's portrayal of McCarthy goes, I find it fascinating, that of ALL the stuff they could have done to this pathetic dribbling excuse of space, in the end, they chose to not have an actor portray him and just put him up there himself, slurring his words, ranting like a [censored] idiot about Commies....LOL - sheeeit....

I'm waiting for the Republicans to all protest "Boo - he's portraying McCarthy in an unfair light" - only to realize they're not watching an actor acting like an incompetent buffoon, they're watching the real buffoon in action - LOL. But only the most vapid Republicans will be doing that. The vast majority of Americans recognize the man for what he was...

In the end, Joseph McCarthy is a good argument for the continuance of abortions.....He ruined a lot of lives for the sole purpose of personal gain. He's a [censored] waste of space even in the ground - we could be using that hole he's buried in to dump feces or something for recycling the environment. As it stands, he's just wasting less space then usual, but still a waste of space.

He is one of the worst Senators in the history of the United States, and if he was buried near me, I'd walk over to his grave and piss on it. (all the while avoiding all the beer cans and trash that I hope is dumped on the site.)

McCarthy is a disgrace to everyone who's a true American.

RB

[Peter666]

Bashing McCarthy is one of the most ridiculous overreactions to a political figure in the history of the United States. In the 50's when the Soviet Union was murdering millions of people in gulags and actually plotting world dominitation, we have the nerve to condemn McCarthy and turn a blind eye to the atrocity.

I have already seen several Hollywood movies dealing with the Black List or people losing their jobs and what not, but have yet to see one God-damn film of the sufferings of the people in Eastern Europe or China during the Cold War.

The unfair imbalance of the situation is so incredible that it defies explanation.

Uh, I wasn't bashing McCarthy. Was this directed at whiskey's post?

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[whiskeytown]

Ah yes - let me summarize your post....

"The Ends Justifies the Means" -

mantra of despots and totaliarian mindsets anywhere....you're in good company.

Two wrongs don't make a right - We're not China or Russia - We're America - and morons like McCarthy make us more like those countries you're bitching about -

The man was scum - sorry if he's a relative, but he was scum. He could eyeball a flatworm on the ground and still be looking up, he was that low.

Rb

[Peter666]

No, this is my editorial comment directed at nobody in particular but to be read by all who lurk these sorry pages. Although now that you mention it, I would like to dedicate it to the guy with the Lenin avatar down below.