paper particularly appreciated the "absence of hysteria" and the paper's
"broader conception of what's important." ³³

The Monitor's standing in the newspaper industry and the respect it re-
ceived during the McCarthy era are unquestioned and well documented. It
is an important source for both mass communication scholars and histori-
ans to use in better understanding the media during the Cold War, and spe-
cifically during the McCarthy era. Veteran Monitor columnist Joseph C.
Harsch perhaps stated it best: "My broadcasts on television got me many a
flattering glance of recognition on the street and sometimes a sharp word of
disapproval from a total stranger, but the opinions I expressed in my col-
umns in the Monitor reached the White House and Congress." ³⁴

The private papers of Richard L. Strout (along with other sources, in-
cluding the Christian Science Church History Department and individual
interviews) provided a window looking into the internal decision-making
process of the Monitor during the McCarthy era. Strout covered many of
McCarthy's committee and subcommittee hearings and was mentioned in
McCarthy's book (as a possible Communist sympathizer). After that book,
the Monitor suspended Strout from covering the Wisconsin Senator, but re-
assigned him to the story by the time the Army-McCarthy Hearings were
held. Strout's assignment covering McCarthy lasted through the censure of
the Senator in December 1954.

Strout was a significant journalist in Washington, D.C. at the time of the
McCarthy era and for decades before and after. In 1925, with four years of
reporting experience in England and the United States and bachelor's and
master's degrees from Harvard, he was transferred from Boston to the pa-
per's Washington bureau. From that time until his retirement in 1988, he
covered more Presidents than anyone in the history of journalism. He cov-
ered many of the most historic events of the century, from the Teapot Dome
scandal to D day, the Korean War, the McCarthy hearings (as mentioned
earlier), the Watergate scandal, and Reaganomics.

He was a general assignment reporter, Washington correspondent, and
columnist for the Monitor for about 67 years and the columnist "TRB" for
the New Republic for nearly 40 years. He coauthored (with E. B. White) Fare-
well to the Model T in 1936, compiled and edited Maud (a New York Times best-
seller in 1939), and a compilation of his columns about the Presidency, TRB:
Views and Perspectives on the Presidency, was published in 1978. He received
the George Polk Award, the Sidney Hillman Foundation Award, and was a
recipient of a lifetime achievement special Pulitzer "citation."

Three days after Richard L. Strout died (at age 92), the editor of the World
Monitor, Earl W. Foell, wrote that Strout was "the preeminent chronicler of

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