Ellen Schrecker on the New McCarthyism

Tucker Carlson on Fox News (7/6/21)

This week on CounterSpin: If you care about free expression, and freedom generally, there is much to talk about right now. It is good to anchor ourselves in that conversation when we talk about books being banned and efforts to erase entire concepts, and then folks trying to inoculate themselves by saying they weren’t even talking about those concepts, until they learn that actually running away from those ideas doesn’t make you safe. These are not entirely new conversations or struggles. But our past has not been fully grappled with or understood, and that has everything to do with what’s happening now and how we can address it. History is alive and active, and you are a part of it.

So this week we’re going to re-air a conversation that we had in January of 2017 with historian Ellen Shrecker, an expert on McCarthyism and its impacts. We don’t doubt that you will understand the relevance and the meaning in 2023.

Transcript: ‘We’re Seeing the Result of a 40-Year Assault on the Liberal Mainstream’

Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent press coverage of the price of eggs.