The pattern is the point.

Jane Fonda relaunched the Committee in response to a new wave of retaliation, intimidation and censorship against people across the media industry. In 1947, the original Committee for the First Amendment launched with iconic members including Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jane's father Henry Fonda. The federal government was repressing and persecuting American citizens—elected officials, government employees, academics, and artists—for their political beliefs. People were blacklisted, harassed, silenced, and even imprisoned.

The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression. Those forces have returned, and the Committee needed to return as well.

A comedian loses his show. A newsroom is pressured to change its coverage. A cultural institution is taken over. A journalist is investigated. A media company seeking government approval learns that capitulation has its rewards. Taken alone, each can look like a separate controversy. Taken together, they reveal something larger: an escalating effort to control who gets to speak, what we get to see and hear, the takeover of institutions – and who is willing to resist.

So we’re keeping the record. →