Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era group to defend free speech
October 4, 2025
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1:10Now PlayingHundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era group to defend free speech
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as posted by the channelHundreds of celebrities have relaunched a committee to defend free speech that was first formed during the post-World War II Red Scare. The group is spearheaded by actor and activist Jane Fonda, whose father, Henry Fonda, stood against the Hollywood blacklists of the McCarthy era.
Pedro Pascal, Mark Ruffalo, Billie Eilish, Spike Lee, Quinta Brunson, Barbra Streisand, Janelle Monáe, Anne Hathaway and Ben Stiller are among the nearly 600 entertainers to join the newly reformed Committee for the First Amendment. The group says the federal government is engaged in a “coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.”
The Committee for the First Amendment first launched in the 1940s, when the House Un-American Activities Committee accused many Hollywood actors and writers of being communists or communist sympathizers and derailed their careers.
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