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

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Hartnett's File 13, the AWARE, Inc. bulletins and its nondescript Who's Where. Pleaders to the bar are few. For the most part they comprise rep- resentatives of institutional pleaders like the Anti-Defamation League and American Civil Liberties Union. Without auspices like these, or those of Martin Gang, the performer has not much chance of being heard anywhere. Wren is not a judge in any usual sense. He knows that once the defendant is accused, the accusation itself becomes an additional factor in judging his competence as a performer — which on tele- vision means a salesman. The defendant (or "victim" as he is known in these circles) may lose jobs or, if he chooses to do his penance with enough enthusiasm, may actually get more work than he ever had before. By and large, though, if he appears before the tribunal, he can expect not much more than "gradual re-employ- ment." He may never be entirely successful, but the difference in being "blacklisted," "greylisted," "bluelisted" or "whitelisted" is considerable. * * These are not to be taken as literal lists. Those who are totally "unemployable" (comparatively few) are, in this context, "blacklisted." Those who can work for one sponsor but not others, on radio but not television, at one network but not another, are "greylisted." "Bluelisting" derives its name from the color of AWARE, Inc.'s stationery. The "whitelisted" are of course eminently "employ- able." Within the industry and in the press all degrees of "unemployability" are generally described as "blacklisting." 121