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Mccarthy

While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the
State Department who have been named as members of the
Communist party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my
hand a list of 205 that were known to the Secretary of the
State as being members of the Communist party and who
nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of
the State Department. (Bayley, 1981,p.17)

This story is held responsible for sparking the McCarthyism era.

The incidents following it, represent a journalistic period paralleled
to the Christian views of the Spanish Inquisition; a time period of branded
embarrassment and horror never to be forgotten.
Later McCarthy said the number he gave in his speech was not 205 but 57.
The fact is that Desmond had a written copy of the speech before McCarthy gave
it, but he could have changed the number to 57 when he actually presented the
speech. Regardless, the number 57 would have been just as shocking as 205. The
reporter's ethics and/or practices were questionable in handling this story.
Why he did not ask to see the list of 205 Communists? If he did, history may
have been different, for as McCarthy said himself "what he held in his hand was
the Byrnes letter, not a list."(Bayley, 1981, p.24) If Desmond had reported that
McCarthy was holding a letter, not a list, the newspapers would have handled the
story much differently. A letter from one person to another, which suggests
unfit employees, would have made much less news than the illusion of an actual
list of names.
This lack of verification, was one of many press blunders that followed
over the next few weeks. In general the press' poor practice would be carried
out for the next five years. "I have here in my hand,..." was a phrase that
"became more popular than a famous toothpaste slogan,"(Belfrage, 1973, p.117)
which he used on an infinite...