If McCarthyism rises from the grave

Ekrem Dumanlı

Joseph McCarthy managed to set the agenda by waving a black list in his hand. It was this way that he put fear into people's hearts. "Here's the list of traitors and spies!" he would say. He voiced an exact number as well: 205 people. Yet, all of the "evidential documents" waved by the Wisconsin senator were forged or irrelevant, including such impertinent documents as a dry cleaning bill. Still, they served him well as he managed to expose the American people to discrimination and hate speech for a decade. He believed to have dozens of documents in a mysterious bag he always carried with him. McCarthy was assumed to be speaking with the "solemnity of a statesman." After he died, people curiously looked into his bag and saw that it was empty. His accusations were imaginary and consisted solely of black propaganda aimed to scare the public.

McCarthyism constituted a state of insanity. This madness was so irrational that it evolved from a narrow-sighted person's delusions into a state despotism, and this ideology came to be depicted under this name. This incident from the 1950s was so symbolic that many similar movements were frequently depicted as McCarthyism. And this was not without a reason. McCarthy couldn't prove his list of 205 Communists who had penetrated into the state, so he lowered the figure first to 80 and then to 50. He couldn't prove this either as he was talking about a purely imaginary network.

Weren't there any socialists or communists in the country? Of course there were, but concrete evidence was needed to accuse them of “espionage,” “treason” or “penetrating into the state.” But McCarthy didn't care about evidence. Yet he had studied law. Although he was not famous as a successful lawyer, he still had a certain knowledge of the law. He had even served as a judge for some time, and he certainly knew that what he did was criminal. But he didn't care. As he waved the documents in his hand, he talked about the traitors who were about to sell the country to Russia. For McCarthy, "enemies" had infiltrated the Office of the Foreign Secretary in the first place. Again, he was talking about "documents," forged or imaginary.

The tense atmosphere of the Cold War provided a good opportunity for such lies. The seller was a good liar, but there were also many people who were willing to buy them. Indeed, as the disgraceful witch-hunt was marketed once again by McCarthy, there was considerable public support behind him. Public opinion polls conducted at a time when McCarthyism was on the wane indicated that many supporters really believed in McCarthy's ravings. His support was about 50 percent, but the indecisive voters constituted 21 percent. The figure of people critical of state terrorism stood at about 30 percent. Oddly enough, the Republicans won the elections with the promise of bringing the Democrats to account in connection with the "traitors who had penetrated into the state," as McCarthy had suggested, but they could not find any single "spy" within the state despite their efforts. And the mask on the face of the despotic senator began to fall down. Several media outlets started to expose his lies and work with the blacklisted people. Thus, the greatest witch-hunt of the 20th century came to an end, but it was never forgotten. It will always be remembered.

Is it even possible to forget about it? It wielded the black propaganda methods of the Nazi era, and thousands of people were treated as potential criminals. Public resources were used to launch slanderous campaigns. Distinguished intellectuals were blacklisted and the literary circles and filmmaking sector were disrupted with nonsensical allegations. Indeed, those who said "We're losing the country" or "There are spies or agents within the state" tried to find whistleblowers from every sector, rewarding those who made unfounded claims.

Some 5,000 pages of interrogations conducted personally by McCarthy were made public some 50 years later and we can all see that this suspicious mind forced everyone to become an informant, trying to make them prove his illusions. He caused much trouble for Berthold Brecht, Howard Fast, Dashiell Hammett, Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Miller and many more. The arduous test of Elia Kazan, born in İstanbul, is still controversial. Unable to withstand heavy pressure, Kazan had to give the names of his eight colleagues from Hollywood to the commission, and he had to live with this disgrace all his life.

McCarthy was not alone. His primary supporter was the head of the US domestic security and intelligence service: John Edgar Hoover. Without him, McCarthy couldn't go so far in his blacklisting and discrediting efforts. Those curious about Hoover can watch the 2011 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The film shows McCarthy and Hoover as soul mates who manufactured crimes when they failed to find any. Some add a third person to this duo as being the mastermind behind the country of horror. He was of course a journalist. Isn't a journalist an indispensable ingredient for any effort to build a society of horror? This matter is food for another article.

McCarthyism may emerge anywhere around the world and at any time and it may seize the entire state apparatus. When unfounded accusations are being leveled and crimes are being devised with which to accuse people, and a discriminatory and “otherizing” language is being ruthlessly used and hate speech is used every day in any country around the world, you can be sure that McCarthyism is about to seize that country. The fate of this ominous mentality that keeps society under duress for a certain period of time is always the same: defeat and disappointment. Nowhere can McCarthyism survive forever. But those who refuse to join the battle for upholding the rule of law will later have to live in disgrace. This is what has always happened.

Do you not have a shred of morality or ethical consideration?

Unfortunately, the Turkish media has been known for its inclination for making false reports. Once a person or group is defined as an opponent or target, media figures direct grave insults at them. However, the whole situation has never been graver than it is now. Sadly, those who make false reports and ungrounded accusations today define themselves as Islamists, former Islamists or conservatives. At least they give this impression. And it is very unfortunate to observe that this is hurting not only their image but also the image of those who have an Islamic identity.

I do not know they even care. But there is at least one thing I am aware of and that I have witnessed: They tell all kinds of lies and rely on every method of defamation to undermine the image of Fethullah Gülen and his followers. The pro-government media makes false reports every day. The lies they tell are revealed and disclaimed. But those who make these false reports show no sign of shame. They shamelessly repeat the same ungrounded allegations. There is not a single day where they do not distort the facts. We expose this irresponsible journalism, but they do not care. I swear to God, the Turkish media has never seen such a militant approach before. What they do is not journalism; they have become useful tools of propaganda.

For instance, Akşam, a publication, that claims to be a newspaper, published a report on Zaman daily that is full of lies. I urged the editor-in-chief of this outlet, Mehmet Ocaktan -- a former deputy -- to prove the allegations or otherwise I would consider the paper to be dishonorable. I also asked them to apologize if they are unable to prove their allegations. There has been no response yet. They should have some honor. Let us assume that they mistakenly made that report and that they are trying to make sure that this is forgotten by remaining silent. But at least they should stop making similar allegations and false reports on Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Instead, they publish false reports on a daily basis.

There is no difference between them and the Yeni Şafak daily, which made an obviously unsubstantiated claim. They argued that Professor Suat Yıldırım and businessman Mustafa Kavurmacı traveled to the US, where they paid a visit to Gülen. The report said Gülen told them there is no time to "treat" or fix the rift between his movement and the government, because things were already set in motion. They insinuated that he would not do anything regarding the Dec. 17 bribery and corruption investigation. Kavurmacı dismissed this allegation. Suat Yıldırım also stressed that the newspaper was telling a lie because he has not been to the US in the past 11 years. They even made another report arguing that the prime minister learned of the incident through their report. Let us say that if you are not ashamed of telling a lie, at the very least you should not be bragging about it. When their lies were exposed, they republished the same lie and changed the names.

I have not even mentioned the biggest liar of all, because its image and prestige is undermined every day on TV and in newspapers, but they do not care. Recently, they ran a headline where they argued that a secret meeting was held with the participation of 5,000 people... A secret meeting was held in İzmir with the participation of 5,000 people! It is obvious that they are lying; however, there are some naïve people who don't see this either.

And there are also figures who define themselves as columnists who exceedingly resent lawsuits that have been filed against their lies and smear campaigns. They are almost ready to kill themselves because not one of their stories has spawned a criminal allegation that can be proven in the last five months. History is now recording serious statements and acts by those who imply that crimes should be fabricated if nobody can be implicated.

They have a clone of McCarthy inside of them. It is really sad to see a woman relying on methods that the Wisconsin senator had employed in the past and asking for the punishment of members of the "parallel structure." And it is also sad to realize that she defines herself as a journalist.

Anyway… I have two recommendations for these newly emergent conservative journalists. First, if you falsely blame others and tell lies, you should be ready to be held accountable before the law; there is no need to react to the lawsuit against you and ask how money was found to start legal proceedings. Second, if the lives of the people have been investigated and no sign of criminal activity has been found, you should not wait for crimes to be fabricated and facts to be manipulated. If you think that you can achieve your goals through acts and methods of demagogy, you are wrong. You should be ashamed of how you look to Allah. And you should remember that you will be unable to answer for your lies and false accusations on Judgment Day.

Published on Today's Zaman, 12 May 2014, Monday