Chuck Todd shoots down McCarthyism comparisons: 'Have we no sense of decency?'

The Washington Times ^ | Friday, December 6, 2019 | Andrew Blake

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Chuck Todd, the host of “Meet the Press,” fired back Thursday after being repeatedly accused of McCarthyism by conservative commentator and Fox News personality Tucker Carlson.

Mr. Todd delivered a monologue about McCarthyism during the NBC show’s latest episode, saying the term has been used recently absent “much intellectual honesty or care.”

Without mentioning Mr. Carlson by name, Mr. Todd weighed in on the heels of the Fox News host repeatedly comparing him this week to former Sen. Joe McCarthy, the late Wisconsin Republican who infamously accused Americans during the Cold War of being communists.

Mr. Todd played a montage during the segment that showed several politicians and pundits, including Mr. Carlson, among others, making references to modern day McCarthyism. He also played a clip of the former senator slamming distinguished late journalist Edward R. Murrow followed by video of President Trump similarly disparaging the press.

“Some believe McCarthyism was about the Soviet Union and Communists – external threats – but it wasn’t. It was about the damage this nation can inflict upon itself when we lose sight of our past and our principles, when we succumb to our basic instincts, when we favor fear over fact,” said Mr. Todd.

“McCarthyism wasn’t about Communism, it was about power. It wasn’t about exposing threats, it was about imposing fear. It wasn’t about them, it was about us,” Mr. Todd continued. “And now, here we are again confronting the very same machinations designed to confuse, obscure and antagonize.”

Mr. Todd ended the segment by paraphrasing a famous line from a 1954 Senate hearing that preceded McCarthy’s downfall.

[Fiji Hill]

The House Committee on Un-American Activities started in the 1930s long before Joe McCarthy was involved.

McCarthy was never involved with the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

[a fool in paradise]

Point being that what today is called McCarthyism was criticized before McCarthy was on the scene and the HCUUA continued through the 1960s even after Joe McCarthy was hounded off the stage.

Joe was criticized for talking about having a ‘list of known Communists’ (is that anything like Adam ShiFFhead’s talk about having PROOF of Trump colluding with Russia?).

The Reds in America WERE in communication with the KGB whether they willfully knew it or whether they were Red Dupe liberals just marching on behalf on their subversive Communist masters.

[Pollard]

But they’re really was Commie infiltration back then.

there still is but it's people taught in our own EDU system now

[Fiji Hill]

The story about Joseph Welch's "have you no decency" remark is a persistent myth. At the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, Welch, the lawyer for the Army, had spent two hours baiting and taunting McCarthy and his subcommittee's consul Roy Cohn. Cohn finally shot back by noting that a Fred Fisher, a member of Welch's staff belonged to the National Lawyer's Guild, a Communist front, which triggered Welch's remark. Welch claimed that this disclosure had smeared the reputation of the "lad," as he called him, and ruined his career. Fact is, this information had already been reported by the New York Times.

Incidentally, the "lad" (born 1921) Fred Fisher went on to become president of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

[Fiji Hill]

Joe was criticized for talking about having a ‘list of known Communists’

I've been to the McLure Hotel in Wheeling, WV, the site where McCarthy announced in 1950 that he had a list of Russian spies and collaborators. The hotel is still there but the building in which McCarthy spoke has been replaced by a modern structure.

A few blocks away is the football field where Richard Nixon addressed a rally shortly after delivering his famous televised "Checkers Speech" in 1952.

[chesley]

If he knows the facts and still comes to the wrong conclusion, then he is a fool. And if he comes to the right conclusion and still propagates a false one, the he is evil

[BillyBoy]

>> It was all about the Reds. <<

According to the mainstream media and a bunch of useful idiots on "our side", that means it was all about the Republicans now.

Gotta love Orwellian newspeak smearing the GOP with the color of totalitarian marxist regimes.

[Impy]

I’ve pretty much given up the Red/Blue fight.

At this point the color scheme is entrenched in the minds of casual voters and I can’t imagine that changing and few people, even smart people on our side, give a damn. I mean the MAGA hats are red.

America isn’t often bound by the conventions of the rest of world. Political color really had no place here before the year 2000.

But still, with Dave Leip’s Atlas still blue for GOP (can’t change all that data) and all your right of center parties in the rest of the English-speaking world using blue, it’s discordant, discongruent, which will always bother a guy like me.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Not me. Keep America Conservative Blue. Death to Commie Reds.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BillyBoy.

Partisan Media Shills update.

[bray]

He simply reads whatever questions the DNC feeds him.