Life of Crime: TV brings it into our homes

I look at this Life article on the 1951 Kefauver hearings — a U.S. Congressional investigation of organized crime — in a historical context for television. By being able to see the faces of criminals, including crooked cops, judges and politicians, it forced them out from the underworld into the TV lights, and therefore to the American public. Television was still fairly new, but was already making a strong impact on our culture.

We take it wholly for granted now, but our ability to see events in the moment from half a world away or around the corner, was once considered a miracle.

Copyright  © 1951, 2013 Time-Life