Fear on Trial

Fear on Trial is a treatise on how the Right Wing created and fomented a scare campaign out of whole cloth, becoming so wealthy from it they could fund the instigators and their candidates for decades - then dismatled their business of "investigating" citizens for possible communist ties to avoid paying the highest court ever ordered award to the framed, innocent victim who finally had the guts to sue them for their illegal, devastating, cruel and totally unfounded accusations. It explains chapter and verse how they conned huge corporations into paying them to "investigate" every single potential employee for any "red" connection through a "computer system" that did. not. even. exist. It was all a complete lie. But by stirring hysteria, people went along with their blackmail rather than be called "anti-" or "un-American." It was they who were in truth unAmerican, and they have *never* been held accountable for the horrific toll they took on the culture, government and citizenry - including the suicides of completely innocent victims accused falsely of having communist connections. Because of their vice grip on the government, no one on the extreme right was ever held arrested for their crimes, the destruction for which they were responsible and billions of dollars they outright stole, despite all the solid evidence unearthed by this landmark legal case brought by an American hero, his family and legal team.

Imagine a David Letterman or Jon Stewart slandered and ruined to the point of having to sell encyclopedias door-to-door and live on handouts from friends and family. His real name would be John Henry Faulk. The host of a successful syndicated afternoon radio program on CBS in the 1950s when TV had yet to claim broadcasting dominance, Faulk ran afoul of far-right organizations and demagogues like Joseph McCarthy for his union activity and otherwise liberal outlook and was blacklisted by the publication "Red Channels," which was nothing more than a shakedown scam. CBS caved and Faulk was out of a job. He sued, but delaying tactics by the defendant's legal team (which included the infamous Roy Cohn) kept the case away from a jury for five years. In one of the greatest legal stories ever told, Faulk recalled that when the judge sent the jury away for deliberation, he and his lawyer, Louis Nizer, had barely begun to have lunch at a nearby restaurant when a runner from the court came and said that the jury had returned. They had a question: Could they award the plaintiff more money than had been requested? Faulk said that Nizer looked as if he had been hit between the eyes by a two-by-four. He had made a lot of mistakes as a lawyer, Faulk said, but failing to ask for enough money had never been one of them. The judgment was for $3.5 million, the largest ever awarded in history for libel up until that time. The only down side of the story is that Faulk barely collected a penny, Red Channels and its parent organization, Aware, Inc., was a hollow shell. CBS, which had cowered in the face of the red-baiters, somehow had the nerve about 15 years later to produce a made-for-TV movie about Faulk's ordeal. Even then, it pulled a lot of punches. Americans like Faulk need to be celebrated at least every ten years, so we can be reminded of what courage and endurance looks like in the flesh.

... are doomed to repeat it. And no book captures more vividly the history of the McCarthy hearings then this book. Anyone hearing McCarthy's words today, from his general classifications of all americans into either loyal citizens (supporting him) or enemies of the state (the rest), to his labeling the International Workers of the World a terrorist organization, should find them hauntingly current and familiar. A must read for anyone who truyly values democracy, liberty and the *real* America-- the one where difference of opinion is valued, not feared.

John Henry Faulk was in an up and coming radio and TV personality when in the mid 1950s when he decided to stand up to those who tried to turn America against itself. His memoir of his legal struggle, "Fear on Trial" tells how he was blacklisted by AWARE, Inc. and subsequently could not work in his chosen profession. Mr. Faulk, with the help of such prominent broadcasters as Edward R. Murrow, Charles Collingwood and Mark Goodsen, hired famed cousel Louis Nizer to file a lasuit against the blacklisters. His victory sounded the death knell fr those who would try to rule through fear, intimidation and innuendo. "Fear on Trial" is a must read for all those who value freedom if thought and expression, for if it were not for John Henry Faulk, Howard Stern, Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh and others would not have the freedom they do today. His writing style is the same as his broadcasting tyle was, simple, folksyand to the point. His recalling the terrible days of unemploable status and the help of friends such as Tony Randall, Jack Gilford (also blacklisted) and others will tug at your heart, mind and soul. I most heartily recommend this book.