Cbs's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism

By Loren Ghiglione

Book Overview

Loren Ghiglione recounts the fascinating life and tragic suicide of Don Hollenbeck, the controversial newscaster who became a primary target of McCarthyism's smear tactics. Drawing on unsealed FBI records, private family correspondence, and interviews with Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Charles Collingwood, Douglas Edwards, and more than one hundred other journalists, Ghiglione writes a balanced biography that cuts close to the bone of this complicated newsman and chronicles the stark consequences of the anti-Communist frenzy that seized America in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Hollenbeck began his career at the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal (marrying the boss's daughter) before becoming an editor at William Randolph Hearst's rip-roaring Omaha Bee-News. He participated in the emerging field of photojournalism at the Associated Press; assisted in creating the innovative, ad-free PM newspaper in New York City; reported from the European theater for NBC radio during World War II; and anchored television newscasts at CBS during the era of Edward R. Murrow.

Hollenbeck's pioneering, prize-winning radio program, CBS Views the Press (1947-1950), was a declaration of independence from a print medium that had dominated American newsmaking for close to 250 years. The program candidly criticized the prestigious New York Times, the Daily News (then the paper with the largest circulation in America), and Hearst's flagship Journal-American and popular morning tabloid Daily Mirror. For this honest work, Hollenbeck was attacked by conservative anti-Communists, especially Hearst columnist Jack O'Brian, and in 1954, plagued by depression, alcoholism, three failed marriages, and two network firings (and worried about a third), Hollenbeck took his own life. In his investigation of this amazing American character, Ghiglione reveals the workings of an industry that continues to fall victim to censorship and political manipulation. Separating myth from fact, CBS's Don Hollenbeck is the definitive portrait of a polarizing figure who became a symbol of America's tortured conscience.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231144970
• ISBN13: 9780231144971
• Release Date: April 2011
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.8"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A solid piece of media history, enthusiastically recommended

Are you now, or have you ever been a communist? A chilling phrase that lead an era. "CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism" tells the stories of one of the few people in the mainstream media of the time to stand against the witch hunt that was launched during the dawn of the Cold War. Hollenbeck fought hard to be fair and honest about how he felt about the McCarthy Communist hunt, and for his efforts, he was fired from several major networks, divorced thrice, and assaulted endlessly by radical conservatives towing the McCarthy line. A tragedy of a good man's life destroyed for simply standing up for what's right, "CBS's Don Hollenbeck" is a solid piece of media history, enthusiastically recommended.

Truth and Tragedy

Author Loren Ghiglione begins his introduction to "CBS's Don Hollenbeck" by saying, "When I started this book thirty-five years ago"...and the conclusion to this lifetime effort is an absorbing, psychobiography of one of the most inspirational journalists of the McCarthy era. A deeply gifted and troubled man, Hollenbeck put a stamp on integrity that would be hard to find today. The times brought out the best of his talents and in a perfect storm, killed him. His legacy has long outlasted his relatively short life but it is all captured wonderfully by Ghiglione. A native Nebraskan whose mother also committed suicide, Hollenbeck had a hard work ethic, a sense of purpose and a personal life that saw him consumed by three marriages and alcohol. How often it is that personal demons which can engage a person's genius can also have the opposite effect. Hollenbeck, while disciplined in much of his work, could also be rash and irrational in his outbursts, causing his many dismissals and resignations. While the first few chapters of "CBS's Don Hollenbeck" are more traditionally presented, the book really catches fire when Hollenbeck, having bounced around a good deal by the time he was in his early forties, finds a niche in "CBS Views the Press". From that first broadcast it's a rather fast track to his death. Ghiglione structures the second half so that Jack O'Brian, Hollenbeck's nemesis from the Journal-American and possible igniter of Hollenbeck's suicide, is summed up in a few short biographical chapters. By not giving O'Brian a huge amount of "ink", the author reminds us that O'Brian doesn't need much exposure. He was a bully of the worst sort at a time when public attacks against liberals (and therefore supposed Communists) were seen as necessary patriotic moves by those who supported McCarthy and his tactics. Hollenbeck held on, perhaps as long as he could, given his increased drinking and continuing assaults by O'Brian. While fellow journalist and friend Edward R. Murrow counseled Hollenbeck to ride out the O'Brian storm, it seems likely that Hollenbeck was already "gone" in a sense. His continuing referrals to suicide, increasing aloofness (although Hollenbeck was always a loner), the dissolution of his third marriage, his inability to keep O'Brian at bay....and, the booze...allowed Hollenbeck to paint himself into a corner from which he could not escape. Ghiglione helps to balance Hollenbeck by pointing out that others of the time also committed suicide, yet many more who did not, survived and thrived... the point being that Hollenbeck should not be pitied but be understood. After reading this book, I do, indeed, feel that while empathy is certainly due Hollenbeck, his inner self was on a crash course to an early end. One of the most telling quotes (and there are many) is this one offered by his third wife, Anne..."he was a young man in search of a way to die". As a narrative, the author builds a slow crescendo...the story is never hurried.