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As with all entities which do not posses power, new media was also controlled and influenced by different spheres of power. This was the period when the cold war was at its initial stages. The government was using all channels of communication it could to gather support for its anti communism agenda. This agenda allowed American governments to allocate billions of dollars to defense contracts and war spending. This cold war mass hysteria was being sponsored by many different spheres of power. The propaganda was so strong that being a communist became a crime.
The government used all resources that it could muster to spread this hatred towards communism. The television was in that time period a new phenomenon. The attraction of television to masses was tremendous and very reliable. People took it as a new and reliable source because there was a lack of understanding about it. The government tried to use this as a propaganda tool for their anti communist agenda. One senator of Wisconsin took this as a personal crusade and went to all means necessary to propagate his anti communist agenda.
There were however some men even than who understood the real place of television journalism. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin faced severe criticism and retaliation from the CBS new team. These people were willing to fight to any means necessary to ensure that trust prevailed at all cost. The main man in this fight for the freedom and independence of new media was Edward R. Murrow. His team included co-producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba. The main revenues as is understood came from the commercial.
At that time there was no concept of paper per view. Therefore television channels were completely dependent on TV commercials to fund their operations. Edward R. Murrow and his team had to face a huge pressure from many different corporate sponsors as well. When Gore Vidal said that television was the first time in world
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