By 1954, television was powerful enough to challenge political demagoguery in real time.

This episode explores the rise and fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose reckless accusations and anti-Communist crusade defined one of the most fearful chapters of Cold War America. While newspapers and radio largely echoed McCarthy’s claims, television exposed them.

From Edward R. Murrow and CBS’s See It Now to the nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings, viewers witnessed something unprecedented: the medium itself becoming a check on political power.

The turning point came on June 9, 1954, when Army counsel Joseph N. Welch confronted McCarthy with the immortal rebuke: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

This milestone also tells the overlooked story of Allen B. DuMont and the pioneering DuMont Television Network, whose gavel-to-gavel coverage of the hearings helped shape television journalism even as the network itself faded into history.

Chapters

• (00:00:00) - We Should Have Laughed at Edison
• (00:00:21) - 100 Years of Television: Countdown 64
• (00:01:50) - The Story of Joseph McCarthy
• (00:14:05) - 100 Years of Television