二、在歇斯底里的反共气氛中二次世界大战之后,人们喘息未定,又陷入东西方冷战的漩涡。冷战中,还断断续续地有局部的热战;其气氛之紧张,使得两个敌对阵营中发生了一阵阵象打摆子似的政治痉挛或者说政治歇斯底里。这里想说说美国新闻媒介当年在一场席卷全国的反共歇斯底里中暴露出来的问题,它们的舆论监督作用起得如何,有些什么教训可供后人借鉴。这场歇斯底里是由威斯康星州的参议员约塞夫·麦卡锡掀起的,故美国称之为麦卡锡主义。它从1950年2月到1954年末,几乎横行五年之久,受害人集中在知识界和政界。有人可能要问:一个参议员,能有多大能耐,居然掀起了一场全国性的狂风恶浪?回答这问题,首先要提到的当然是冷战这个大气候。至于第二位的原因,那就涉及美国新闻界存在的一些弱点 Second, in the anti-communist atmosphere of hysteria in the aftermath of World War II, people underexposed, but also plunged into the whirlpool of the Cold War between the East and the West. In the cold war, there were also some intermittent hot war intermittently; the tension in the atmosphere caused a wave of political spasms or political hysteria in the two hostile camps. Here we want to talk about the problems exposed by the U.S. media in an anti-communal hysteria that swept across the country in that year. They have played a supervisory role in public opinion and some lessons have been learned for future generations. The hysteria was set off by Wisconsin Senator Josef McCarthy, so the United States calls it McCarthyism. From February 1950 to the end of 1954, it lasted almost five years and the victims were concentrated in the intellectual and political circles. Someone may ask: How energetic is a senator, actually setting off a nationwide storm of wind? In answering this question, the first thing to be mentioned is, of course, the climate of the Cold War. As for the second reason, it involves some weaknesses in the U.S. press