Posted by
Mike Bates on Sunday, April 26, 2009 1:17:33 PM
Appearing today on the Toledo Blade's Web site is the article
"Candide: Toledo Opera production offers the liveliest aspects of opera, musical theater, and operetta." Author Sally Vallongo writes:
In the 1950s, as then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R., Wis.)
and his House Committee on Un-American Activities investigated liberal
and progressive artists in search of Communist-oriented dissidents,
Hellman and Bernstein collaborated on what would become one of several
major works fomented by government activities: the play and film Cradle
Will Rock, and Arthur Miller’s play and opera The Crucible are others.
Sometimes, readers must wonder if newspaper correspondents ever
passed a class in basic civics. If journalists had, they’d know that
Congress consists of two bodies, the House and the Senate. A member of
one body doesn’t chair a committee from the other. No Senator – not
even Joe McCarthy – could run a House committee. A clue might have
been that his title was senator rather than congressman or
representative, but perhaps that's expecting too much.
Moreover, McCarthy didn't devote a great deal of time to
investigating, as Vallongo asserts, "liberal and progressive artists."
Possibly she's confusing his inquiries with those of the House
Un-American Activities Committee, which held hearings on Hollywood's
comrades years before McCarthy launched his anti-Communist crusade.
The mainstream media are justifiably criticized for their reporting
of what's taking place now. They don't do such a hot job of covering
the past either.