Good Night, and Good Luck, starring George Clooney on Broadway is a wake-up call about the ethical courage we desperately need today—a timely parable based on a pivotal moment in American history when journalism was not only a public service, but a moral stand. The play recalls the courage of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow as he confronted Senator Joseph...

On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy stood before the County Women’s Republican Club in West Virginia and stated, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the...

We’re all looking for positive stories. This editorial — from The New York Times, Sunday March 7, 1954, under the title, “The ‘Positive’ Story” — is more a warning to President Eisenhower, and offers many parallels to today’s headlines. What many were unaware at the time, Eisenhower had already begun a stealth campaign against the demagogic Senator Joseph R. McCarthy,...