Plot Summary

McCARTHY YEARS turns back the clock to the Fifties, a time when the country lurched into a murky period of blacklists and witch-hunts for alleged Communists, all led by a young senator named Joseph McCarthy. Revered for his bravery and incorruptibility, Murrow made a controversial series of broadcasts that challenged McCarthy's abuses of power, which--as this gripping program investigates--signaled the emergence of television news as a momentous and highly influential force in American life.