A president — and the establishments that assist him — silencing political dissent. Journalists fired by right-wing media oligarchs. Even late-night speak present hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have discovered themselves targets. The US has seemingly returned to the Nineteen Fifties, when McCarthyism noticed a nationwide witch hunt for communists and “subversive” ideology.
And it’s catching: the Red Scare-esque hysteria over political speech is clear in Australia, too, with campaigns in opposition to critics of Israel, local weather activists and progressive voices supported by authorities crackdowns.
Crikey’s reporter-at-large Charlie Lewis joins the podcast to elucidate the hanging parallels between McCarthyism and the fraught political discourse of 2025.
Read right this moment’s episode transcript right here.
Cut Through is Crikey’s new weekly podcast bringing you spin-free evaluation of Australian information, politics and energy. Each week, readers’ editor Crystal Andrews is joined by Crikey journalists to debate the week’s greatest information story.
Listen within the hyperlink above, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or watch on YouTube.
