An enemy of the state

the long version

Erwin Knoll never built a bomb or joined a separatist group, but he relished his status as an enemy of the state. From fleeing the Nazis as a child in his native Austria, to being a Washington journalist on Nixon's Official Enemies List, to his 21-year tenure as editor of The Progressive magazine, to his role as a commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, Knoll stood in opposition to the powerful people and institutions of his time. In 1979, the U.S. Government moved to prevent him from publishing an article about the inner workings of the hydrogen bomb - an historic confrontation between the rights of the media and the power of the state, told here in unprecedented depth. The twin engines of Knoll's radicalism were his absolute opposition to violence and his absolute commitment to freedom of speech - ideas that put him at odds not just with the Government but also, at times, with the Left. When he died suddenly in 1994, Knoll was one of the nation's best-known proponents of left-wing ideas, an eloquent voice for peace and social justice.