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Do you feel it had a strong impact on what happened to McCarthy shortly thereafter?

It had an impact, whether it was as strong as people say it is now or not, I'm not sure I would support that. A minute ago, I said I thought we were at the back of a train instead of at the head end of the train. Another way of putting it is to say that I think McCarthy was already fading from the scene at the time we did the broadcast. No question about it: It carried an enormous wallop. And it carried wallop all over the world. It was picked up not as television but as an attack on McCarthy.

More than any single thing that Ed did, it was identified with his role as a broadcaster. His reporting out of London during the blitz and so forth, important as that was, it didn't carry any of the impact of the McCarthy broadcast did.

McCarthy came into my office -- we offered time to him to reply -- and I think he took two weeks. He didn't come back the very next week. And he had a lot of expense to prepare his broadcast. And we paid for that so that the charge couldn't be made that we had the money and therefore we could do the broadcast and he couldn't.

What was it like to meet Joseph McCarthy?

You know, having said that he came into my office, I'm now not absolutely sure that he did, or whether he sent an agent in to represent him. I remember it was a Saturday.