“Red Channels” Report Names Alleged Communists, Leads to Blacklisting
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television, published on this day, was a notorious anti-Communist report on alleged Communists and Communist sympathizers in the broadcast and entertainment industries.
The report was published by American Business Consultants, Inc., founded by two former FBI agents. The report named 151 actors, writers, musicians, journalists, including such notable figures as Orson Welles, Leonard Bernstein, Pete Seeger, Edward G. Robinson, as well as many others. Many people named in the report were blacklisted from employment in their respective fields.
Modeled after President Harry Truman’s federal Loyalty Program, Red Channels report operated on the principle of guilt by association, naming people because of groups they belonged to, had once belonged to years ago, or belonged to for a very brief time, or had once attended meeting by an alleged subversive group, or had friends who were alleged to be subversive. People were listed, for example, because they once signed a letter or petition sponsored by a group that was associated with the Communist Party. Naming people as being Communists or Communist sympathizers did not take into account individuals’ current political views or associations.
The Justice Department issued its notorious report, The Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations, which immediately became an official blacklist, on December 4, 1947.
Read the ACLU condemning blacklisting in the broadcast, theater and music industries, The Judges and the Judged, released on April 6, 1952.
In a successful challenge to Red Channels, John Henry Faulk, host of a radio talk show, was blacklisted but eventually won a damage suit due to losing his job (June 28, 1962). Red Channels provided the basis for some of the events in the film Good Night, and Good Luck, (2005) one of the best films about the Cold War.
Learn more about Cold War blacklisting: David Everitt, A Shadow of Red: Communism and the Blacklist in Radio and Television (2007)
Learn more about Counterattack, the American Business Consultant’s newsletter: http://library.bloomu.edu/Archives/SC/RadicalNewsletters/Counterattack/counterattack.htm
Read the NPR story on Red Channels: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128005395
See the movie that features Red Channels, blacklisting, Joe McCarthy and Edward R. Murrow: Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)