The Wiz in the Witch Hunt: Milton Stewart, the FCC, and the FBI

Milton D. Stewart was an innovative and influential young media reformer of the mid- and late 1940s. He intersected with some of the most eminent figures in the field, including Robert M. Hutchins and the Commission on Freedom of the Press. At age twenty-two, Stewart made regulatory history by persuading the Federal Communications Commission to accept content analysis as evidence in a licensing proceeding. A few years later, a former landlady's allegations led to an exhaustive FBI investigation of Stewart's associations, writings, beliefs, and personal life, including his views on media reform. Although media-related writing and activism were not proximate causes of the Stewart probe, this study argues that his case illustrates the nature of information that the FBI could gather, including matters far afield from national security.