Report on blacklisting: II. Radio-television ([1956])

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from the Soviet Union. (See my article, "They've Moved In on TV," American Legion Magazine, January 1953, pp. 26 ff.) As a basic tactic, the Communist forces sought wherever possible to give available jobs to party members or collaborators with the Communists. Patronage has been of the essence of Communist suc- cesses in the theatre. Those who had jobs to give did not need to be Party members; they could be "sympathizers." That such patronage was used seems a conclusion warranted from an examination of the casting on certain TV shows. The old "T-Men in Action" series (from its inception until late-1952) habitually fea- tured known Communists and individuals with significant Communist- front records. So did the old "Big Story" series, which was also for- merly on radio. (Cf. op. cit., p. 26.) Complementary-wise, these series in the period noted featured few, if any, active anti-Communists. It is not stated that the series deliber- ately "blacklisted" active anti-Communists: by hiring a relatively very high incidence of Communists and Communist-fronters, they achieved the same effect. In recent years, other TV series which have manifested a high incidence of Communists and Communist-fronters, and a low incidence of active anti-Communists, comparatively speaking, are "Danger," "Philco TV Playhouse," and "Omnibus" (a project of the Ford Foundation). There was probably nothing illegal in the effective "blacklisting" of active anti-Communists on such series as the old "T-Men." By the same token, there is nothing illegal in efforts to favor anti-Communists on radio-TV. Such efforts have been dictated by the necessity of resisting Communist efforts to penetrate radio-TV and use those media for Party purposes. The war against Communist subversion is not just five thousand miles away. It is more immediately right here in New York. 99