AIMREPORT $2.00
published by Accuracy in Media June-B 2008 XXXVII-12
Reed Irvine, Founder | Cliff Kincaid, Editor |
MAINSTREAM MEDIA TRY TO BURN A BOOK
*By: Wes Vernon
“Let’s predict a couple of things had been skeptical of McCarthy. News, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco
about this very important book. First, However, reading Blacklisted by Chronicle, Seattle Times, USA Today,
it will seldom be reviewed. It will be History with an open mind altered his ABC, CBS, NBC (other than MSNBC
set up for target practice; that is, judgment—or as he put it: “The cable, as noted above).
second, if it is not altogether ignored, combination of forces against Joe They gave this important history
becoming a non-book by the dictates McCarthy from the Left, from the tome—taking years of the author’s life
of the heirs of the people who swept news media, from both parties and his in painstaking research—the silent
its subject into the dustbins of history, own president, had succeeded in treatment—in spades. A new
viciously spitting on his grave.” aligning people like me against him. generation of commentators and
That was the dire reporters has filled the slots
forecast of Hillsdale The media attempt to ignore or dismiss at these “prestige”
College’s longtime History dispensers of information and
Professor John Willson, the Evans book on Senator McCarthy historical interpretations,
after reading M. Stanton demonstrates their own ignorance picking up the torch of
Evans’ epic Blacklisted by of the facts. distortion left by the Ed
History: The Untold Story of Murrows of the “McCarthy
Senator Joe McCarthy and era.”
his Fight Against America’s Stan Evans has described why we
Enemies.” were wrong—because, indeed, A Pattern Of Deceit
Much of Willson’s scenario has McCarthy was fighting ‘a conspiracy
come to pass. But there have been so immense.’” Generally, the media that trashed
some bright spots. Evans’ book was well-received in the Evans book did so either from a
Actually, Stan Evans says the book a series of columns by Mal Kline of wealth of ignorance or willingness to
was favorably spotlighted in much of AIM’s sister organization, Accuracy gloss over the book’s irrefutable
the “new media”—i.e., talk-radio, the in Academia. documentation.
Internet, cable-TV conservatives, and As Evans tells AIM, “the negative
some local news outlets. Glenn Beck Silent Treatment reviews in almost all cases conform to
(radio), Joe Scarborough (TV), Dennis a common pattern” of error on three
Miller (radio) and Fox Radio also come But in an interview with AIM, points in particular:
to mind. Evans shook his head when asked 1—“Failure to come to grips” with
In the print media, there were about the following: Time, Newsweek, such issues as the bogus quote imputed
good notices from Investors Los Angeles Times, the Washington to McCarthy of “205” communists in
Business Daily, Human Events, Post, New York Post, New York Daily the State Department, the case of Annie
Robert Stacy McCain in the Lee Moss, and the real security dangers
Washington Times, as well as at Fort Monmouth. Considering that
syndicated columnists Ann Evans’ style in the 643-page book is to
Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and avoid name-calling while methodically
William Rusher, the onetime laying out the evidence, his description
publisher of National Review (an of critics as failing to “come to grips”
irony for reasons we’ll visit anon). with reality may be his polite way of
Columnist Robert Novak gave the saying (correctly in our judgment) that
Evans book a very good review in The where the facts did not fit the critics’
Weekly Standard. In fact, Novak, biases, the facts were simply ignored.
whom we interviewed last year for his M. Stanton Evans *Wes Vernon is a Washington-based
own memoirs, told us at the time he writer & broadcast journalist.
4455 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.Suite #330 Washington, D.C. 20008 | Phone: (202) 364-4401 | Fax: (202) 364-4098 | E-mail:
info@aim.org | Web: www.aim.org
One cannot be a failure at something the Amerasia case]” from Radosh’s Lauchlin Currie, and Phillip Jaffe” and
unless one first tries to succeed.
earlier book on the same subject, “and others. Service surely was hanging out
2—Misrepresenting what the
author had to say about Owen which he [Evans] does not with a lot of Soviet agents, even at one
Lattimore, McCarthy’s George
Marshall speech, and the sources of acknowledge.” time rooming with one of them (Adler).
McCarthy’s information. As Evans
says, “Some of these distortions are The author told AIM this statement Radosh’s co-author Harvey Klehr
so far afield from my actual views as
to suggest the reviewer hasn’t read the charging him with plagiarism “is a lie. has produced voluminous research on
book (the most charitable explanation
that I can think of).” Poppycock. It’s a lie and I reiterate the history of Soviet subversion in the
3—In lieu of facts, there were that. It’s a lie.” U.S. He is someone for whom Evans
those who resorted to the ad hominem
attack. “By far the worst” of these “In my book,” the author has high respect—so much so that
was an “utterly false” accusation by
Ronald Radosh. continued, “I referenced the FBI’s Evans gave Klehr an advance copy of
Nasty National Review Amerasia file and those references his work and invited his input, which
An exceptionally nasty review in every case were totally different Klehr provided in the form of some
(“atrocious” is the way Evans
describes it) appeared in National from sources that are in the friendly suggestions. Question: If any
Review magazine, which apparently
has retreated from the culture Radosh/Klehr book because they author had plagiarized the work of
prevailing there when William Rusher
(referenced above) was publisher. got their references mostly from another author, would he have handed
Radosh in his NR review deals Emory University’s Phillip Jaffe’s an advance copy of his new book to
with Evans’ treatment of what
became known as the Amerasia collection [Jaffe, editor of that other author for his comment?
case, and recalls that he (Radosh)
and Harvey Klehr had written a Amerasia, a Communist and close Common sense (in addition to Evans’
1996 book dealing with this 1945
scandal wherein documents friend of Communist party boss professional integrity, the evidence of
smuggled out of the State
Department had shown up in Earl Browder]. The file citations the citation and Radosh’s change of
Amerasia, a sheet that had served
as a transmission belt for the are accordingly quite different. accusation) says the Radosh charge
Communist Chinese.
In his response to Evans—who doesn’t ring true.
Evans in his current book deals
with McCarthy’s spotlight on the was granted space in NR to respond
organized cover-up of that case by the
Truman Justice Department and to the Radosh review, Radosh writes, The Marshall Affair
(unknown to McCarthy at the time) by
the old New Deal fixer “Tommy the “The only problem is that I never wrote
Cork” Corcoran. Five years after the
cover-up had succeeded, here comes anywhere that Evans plagiarized our This writer gasped when reading
McCarthy to dig up the bodies
(figuratively speaking) and arouse the book. I only said that he ignored its Radosh’s statement that “Evans
sleeping dogs that were thought to have
been forever silenced. findings and trumpeted his ‘discovery’ supports McCarthy’s outrageous
Evans takes angry exception to of the Amerasia cover- assertion about Gen.
Radosh’s charge that he (Evans) had
taken “virtually all of his material [on up and ignored those Ronald Radosh George C. Marshall.”
portions of the FBI files Evans in fact wrote
he read that distorted the the exact opposite.
contradicted his claim Evans book. He plainly said in
that John Service was Blacklisted by
a Soviet agent.” It’s History that in his
noteworthy that this response changes judgment, McCarthy erred in saying
the original accusation that Evans lifted Marshall always came down on the
his material from Radosh’s book to the wrong side, and he cited examples to
statement that Evans ignored his back that up.
findings—quite different from McCarthy’s Marshall speech was
Radosh’s initial accusation. later expanded in a book, America’s
Beyond that, nowhere in Retreat from Victory. I found it
Evans’ book does he claim to have compelling reading. At the very least
made the original “discovery” of one can say that—as far as we
the Amerasia cover-up. know—there is no record of Marshall
Further, as Evans points out in our protesting disastrous policies he was
interview, “I never claimed that John ordered to implement—policies which
Service was a Soviet agent.” led to the downfall of the pro-western
“Categorically false, and typical of government of China, to be replaced
Radosh,” Evans tells AIM. by the Communists who rule today, and
Blacklisted by History does spell whose People’s Liberation Army
out John Stewart Service’s record, considers the United States as “the
including his role in the cover-up and main enemy.”
his dealings with the likes of “SolAdler, Radosh belittles Evans’ coverage
of McCarthy’s pursuit of Owen injustice.” but made available to the public in
Lattimore. Lattimore was a central Fast forward to 1999 and William 1995.”
figure in the Amerasia case, with F. Buckley’s novel The Redhunter If anything in that sentence
connections to the State Department which dealt with (as he saw it) conveys even a hint that the author all
and a deep involvement with the McCarthy’s plusses and minuses. That by himself uncovered “fresh
Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), a apparently wasn’t good enough for information” in documents that he says
virtual clearing house for advocates of Radosh who took Buckley to task for were already “widely noted” and (as
Red Chinese ascendance to power in crediting the senator with being on the the author plainly states) were released
Beijing. right side of the anti-Communist issue. to the public a dozen years earlier, then
In so doing, the reviewer follows The response, a vintage Buckleyism, Orwell’s prediction of upside-down
others who have smeared Louis was that, “there is no point in Radosh, interpretations of plain unambiguous
Budenz—one of those who had burdened by his mindset, reading [the wordage has truly come to pass.
testified as to Lattimore’s activities book] because it would necessarily be While Evans never claimed to have
and—more to the point—ignores the uphill for him, as hard as going as an discovered the Venona papers, he did
findings of the McCarran impotent locked in all night with a discover a lot of other information
subcommittee (of which McCarthy whore.” never previously published, including
was not a member) that Owen backup files of Joe McCarthy relating
Lattimore was “from sometime The New York Times to his suspects, and reams of data from
beginning in the 1930s a conscious the FBI pertaining to his cases.
articulate instrument of the Soviet While most of the big media chose Going Downhill
conspiracy.” to accord Blacklisted by History the
silent treatment, the New York Times
Buckley Would Be Ashamed ultimately—three months after the Oshinsky writes that “Evans buys
book went on sale—ran an article into the heart of the McCarthy
One can recall better days at trashing it. conspiracy—the belief that leftist
National Review, when its legendary David Oshinsky, author of the elements of the Roosevelt and Truman
founder William F. Buckley was 1983 book A Conspiracy so administrations created a foreign policy
“hands-on.” Buckley’s 1954 book Immense, charges that Evans to advance the spread of world
McCarthy and his Enemies communism.”
—co-authored with L. Brent “Leftist elements?” By
Bozell (the senior Bozell) The New York Times waited three months before using that term to describe
approvingly described publishing a review of the Evans book, and communist-led treason,
McCarthyism as “a weapon in then the paper trashed it. Oshinsky sets up a straw man
the American arsenal.” In his suggesting the author had
latter days Buckley (who died alleged a conspiracy that might
early this year) had little input with the “leaves the impression that he has have included perhaps the likes of
content of NR, according to a family uncovered fresh information Norman Thomas (the perennial
member. suspiciously overlooked until Socialist Party candidate for president),
When McCarthy died in May of now.” This is a reference to Evans’ and maybe FDR and HST themselves.
1957, National Review writers of that discussion of the Venona papers, a Evans’ comeback: “It was
era paid tribute to him… top secret project that traced communists in key places [as
…..From William Schlamm…“The Soviet intelligence communica- opposed to the all encompassing
intelligentsia tarred and feathered him tions with its agents in the U.S. “leftists”] who were pushing policy
because it insists that man is during World War II. options that were to the advantage
intellectually an eternal child and We must assume Mr. Oshinsky, a of the Soviet Union. Again, a clear
morally a vegetable. In short at the History professor at the University of example was Sol Adler—a Soviet
heart of what McCarthy said and did Texas, understands the meaning of the agent. But then you have
was the very essence of Western term “most widely noted.” Why then [Lauchlin] Currie, [Alger] Hiss,
civilization; while his opposition lost its would he misinterpret the following [Harry Dexter] White. These [for
mind on a savage binge of irrelevancy.” sentence in Blacklisted by History? example] were not just ‘leftist
…From L. Brent Bozell who “The most widely noted of these elements,’ they were Soviet agents
lamented that when the Senate new disclosures are the so-called and communists.”
censured McCarthy, “his peers had Venona papers, in possession of the The professor claims that “most
done him a monstrous personal U.S. government since World War II, believe the worst of it [Communist
espionage] was over by the late 1940’s were 57 in the State Department its editors embarrassed to print
[before McCarthy burst upon the who were “either Communists or credible responses.
national scene].” But as Evans shows, loyal to the Communist Party.” The
the communist penetration problem 205 figure originated with the error Curiously these three distorted
was by no means over in 1950. Many of a local Wheeling reporter, whose writings don’t mention the deluge of
of the people who had been exposed incorrect story ended up criticism that descended on Senator
in the past were still in government nationwide on the AP. McCarthy for losing patience with
posts, and the bureaucracy was General Ralph Zwicker.
shielding them from dismissal or Evans subsequently shot down yet
shifting them around from one agency another misstatement in which the WSJ The general—commanding
to another, more or less keeping them writer claims that the legendary officer at Camp Kilmer, N.J.—had
“one step ahead of the sheriff.” Chicago Tribune reporter Willard told McCarthy investigator James
Edwards was horrified on reading the Juliana that several suspected
Journal Shafts Evans mistaken headline because he had subversives were stationed there,
passed on the 205 figure to McCarthy including one Irving Peress who had
During AIM’s interview in Evans’ based on a “rumor.” been promoted and given an honorable
office, the author received a phone call discharge. But when appearing before
from the Letters Editor of the Wall Thanks to Willard Edwards’ son the committee, the general hemmed
Street Journal. The author had been Lee Edwards—Chairman of the and hawed, having been ordered by
informed the paper would “consider” Victims’ of Communism Memorial his superiors not to cooperate.
granting him a grand total of 200 words Foundation and recipient of this year’s McCarthy, chairing the session,
to reply to a lengthy WSJ op-ed Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media severely berated Zwicker for his
attacking McCarthy “revisionists,” Award—Evans gained access to the weasel words. The senator got a
mentioning Evans by name. elder Edwards’ memo saying public relations black eye for that.
McCarthy may have picked up the
Obviously, said Evans, that was number 57 (not 205) from a Willard Perhaps one possible reason
not nearly enough space in which to Edwards article listing that number of today’s critics of the senator prefer to
refute all the misstatements of Ron let that sleeping dog lie is that Juliana—
Kessler’s WSJ piece. The bottom line Ron Kessler’s Wall Street the only surviving member of
is the Journal refused to run a longer Journal article criticizing the McCarthy’s staff—is willing to tell
rebuttal supplied by Evans. book was another example of a anyone who will listen (including in an
writer not having the facts. interview with AIM) that Zwicker
This writer’s own column on committed perjury that day and on
the AIM website noted the April security cases in the federal subsequent occasions. When the
22 WSJ op-ed was wrong even on government. Again, McCarthy’s Democrats regained control of the
the most basic points: A-Kessler version is supported, and the WSJ committee, Chairman John
confused the Army-McCarthy version is discredited. McClellan—with Robert Kennedy as
hearings with McCarthy’s own his chief counsel—referred the matter
earlier hearings of Communist Not The First Time to the Justice Department. The
penetration of the Army. B-He said Eisenhower administration swept that
McCarthy “failed to substantiate Several years ago, the Wall Street scandal under the rug—and a
his claim that communists had Journal ran an article by Dorothy complicit media ignored it, as
penetrated the Army.” Our column Rabinowitz slamming McCarthy for an McCarthy was Blacklisted by
cited—as examples—five of the alleged false accusation against Annie History.
many names of penetrators whom Lee Moss. Evans wrote a letter to the
Evans documents in his book. C- editor then pointing out that Mrs. Moss What You Can Do
He repeats the myth that was exactly what McCarthy said she
McCarthy initially claimed (in was, citing official records identifying Please send the enclosed cards or
Wheeling, W.Va.) that 205 card- her as a Communist Party member. The cards and letters of your own choosing
carrying Communists had Journal refused to publish it. to Rupert Murdoch and Newt
penetrated the State Department. Gingrich. And please consider using
We cited witnesses and On the subject of Joe the other postcard to send a
investigators for a Democrat- McCarthy, the WSJ routinely finds contribution to AIM.
dominated Senate committee who writers so error-prone as to render
twice backed McCarthy’s AIM REPORT is published twice monthly by
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