Edward R. Murrow from "Good Night and Good Luck"
It is October 15, 1958. There are men dressed up in expensive black-tie suits, women flaunting their bright dresses and expensive jewelry. It is near impossible to find a hand without a cigarette as smoke floats cloudily all over the place. There is a highly sophisticated atmoshphere attached to all the socializing, bright lights and jazzy music playing in the background at the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) in Chicago,
The social charade finally dies down when Edward R. Murrow is called up to a podium after winning an award. With his solemn and discerning voice, Murrow delivers a very powerful and alerting speech regarding the dwindling state of journalism
“It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television.”
Enter Good Night and Good Luck, a movie about headstrong news broadcaster Murrow and the CBS crew going against tyrant-like Senator Joe McCarthy. TV and broadcast is hardly mainstream, The American people are gripped in fear of Communism making its way into their country. This fear is strongly harbored by McCarthy’s tireless propaganda of America falling under such a threat. The senator has made tireless accusations against anyone he suspected was under Communist influence
Unfortunately, Air Force pilot Milo Radulovich was a victim of McCarthy’s Communist rant. As a result, he was discharged from the military without a fair and formal trial. Once Murrow and his colleague Fred Friendly heard about this, they decided to do a story about it. Their report on the story questioned the fairness, procedure of Radulovich’s discharge and whether there was reasonable substance or proof behind McCarthy’s charges.
Such investigative reporting by Murrow was a quest for the unalterable truth, an opportunity to dig out the hard facts and dutifully inform the American people. it also challenged McCarthy as an authority. McCarthy then accused Murrow of being Communist as well. McCarthy had accused Murrow of associating with Communist becausse one Communist writer had dedicated a book to him.
Unlike McCarthy, Murrow did not just say he was not Communist but used journalism as his tool to shell out the truth. I liked the fact that he read directly from the dedicated book and stated how the Communist respected their opposing views. He showed that McCarthy’s accusations were ineffective and not true. In the end McCarthy looked like an idiot.
Murrow and Friendly used effective techniques to assemble a good package. They and the rest of the CBS crew would sit down together and brainstorm what to come up with. Whatever findings they made, they jumped into it and implemented it in their show. Including the Radulovich story as well.
“There’s no news boys, so go out there and make some news. Rob a bank, mug an old lady, whatever- just do something,” Friendly said.
It was not always easy for Murrow to put out hard-hitting journalism. Sometimes it had to be monitored. CBS Chairman Bill Paley played a big part in story selection. He respected Murrow but was not a big fan of his controversial reports and would rather have Murrow do the casual and soft one-on-one interviews to please sponsors. All Paley cared about was business, sponsors and viewer ratings with hig-profile interviews.
Paley even had the power to censor Murrow and his show. After Murrow’s controversial report on McCarthy making Communist accusations without proof. Paley limited Murrow’s show to certain viewing times.
Despite that, Murrow, Friendly and the CBS crew seized the opportunity to always report the truth. Murrow was persistent and fair as he pleaded and constantly offered McCarthy to come to his show for a rebuttal. He had the courage to question those in power and their methods. I also admire Friendly’s ability to stand up to military generals and not fold under pressure as he claimed he would air the story about Radulovich.
“Who? Who? Who are these people, sir? Who are the people Are they elected? Are they appoined? is it you?”
From the movie I learned that journalism is a vehicle that helos drives the truth home and we should not fear of being accused or getting looked down upon because we want to dig out the truth. It was the most important Murrow was getting at and he never deviated from that
.
