Political Climate of the 1950s

By 1953, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy had become one of America's best-known politicians through his campaigns to uncover subversives in government operations. His attacks on the U.S. Army in the fall of 1953 led to the first televised hearings in U.S. history, the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. The American public watched McCarthy live in action, and they didn't much care for what they saw. Popular approval for McCarthy eroded during the hearings and his eventual fall from power became just a matter of time.
In the fall of 1953, McCarthy conducted an investigation of the Army Signal Corps. His announced intent was to locate an alleged espionage ring, but he turned up nothing. However, McCarthy’s treatment of General Ralph W. Zwicker during that investigation angered many. McCarthy insulted Zwicker's intelligence and commented that he was not fit to wear his uniform.

On March 9, 1954, CBS television broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now program, which was an attack on McCarthy and his methods. Subsequently, the Army released a report charging that McCarthy and his aide, Roy Cohn, had pressured the Army to give favored treatment to G. David Schine, a former McCarthy aide who had been drafted. McCarthy counter-charged that the Army was using Schine as a hostage to exert pressure on McCarthy not to expose communists within its ranks.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations decided to hold hearings that became known as the Army-McCarthy hearings, televised from the Senate Caucus Room. McCarthy relinquished his chairmanship position to Republican Karl Mundt from South Dakota so that the hearings could commence. Both sides of that dispute aired on national television between April 22 and June 17, 1954, for 188 hours of broadcast time in front of 22 million viewers. McCarthy’s frequent interruptions of the proceedings and his calls of "point of order" made him the object of ridicule, and his approval ratings in public opinion polls continued a sharp decline.

On June 9, the hearings reached their moment of greatest drama, when McCarthy attacked a young legal aide of Joseph Nye Welch (Army Chief Counsel). The aide, Fred Fisher, had once worked for the National Lawyers Guild (an organization with communist ties) and Welch had advised him to stay away from the hearings for his own good. Even though the man was not present, McCarthy impugned his character. Welch’s reply became famous: “Until this moment, senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or recklessness .... Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” When McCarthy attempted to respond, Welsh cut him off demanding that the chairman call the next witness. Hesitating for a moment, the silent gallery broke into applause. McCarthy was stunned. The hearings drew to an inconclusive finish shortly afterwards.
Televised coverage of the hearings exposed McCarthy’s obnoxious demeanor did much to ruin his reputation, and later led to his censure by the U.S. Senate on December 2, 1954. His nasally “point of order” phrase became a national cliché and members of the subcommittee became household names and faces. The Army-McCarthy hearings live on in the memories of millions of Americans, aided by filmmaker Emile de Antonio’s documentary film Point of Order.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1769.html

I think that the McCarthy Trials really shows how much of a differance our court systems have evolved and changed from then to now.  It impacted their daily life because most of these trials were televised and in the media.  Many people watched and listened to it all happen which kind of made them involved.  People didn't all know how to react to it.  It affected each group differently. The trials were very public and many people knew about them.  It changed how people saw certain things in some cases even.  I learned that even the simplest things can spark controversy and can cause a lot more drama then it was meant to.