Helen Whitney

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Helen Whitney was an award-winning producer for the American Broadcasting Corporation.^[1] She produced a documentary called American Inquisition, which became the subject of a very famous case about First Amendment rights. The piece examined how McCarthyism had affected the small town of Fairmont, West Virginia.^[2] Victor Lasky, "the rightwing journalist" who rose to prominence in the McCarthy era, sued ABC over his depicition in the show.^[3] The central issue was whether Lasky had accused Luella Mundel at an American Legion meeting in 1951 of being a Communist. Mundel was the head of the art department of Fairmont State College in Fairmont, West Virginia.^[4] In this environment, the question alone led to her termination and blacklisting. She later attempted suicide. Lasky maintained that the program inaccurately reported that he had called Mundel a Communist.

Her most recent work is the film, "Fear And Doubt at Ground Zero".

[edit] See also

• Floyd Abrams
• List of prominent cases argued by Floyd Abrams
• Luella Mundel
• Victor Lasky

[edit] External links

helenwhitney.com

[edit] References

1. ^ Floyd Abrams, Speaking Freely, Page 153.
2. ^ Floyd Abrams, Speaking Freely, published by Viking Press (2005), Page 153-58
3. ^ Geoffrey Stone, Supreme Court Tales From the Pleading Side of the Bench (book review), The New York Times, April 16, 2005, via Law.UChicago.edu.
4. ^ Speaking Freely, Page 154