Good Night, and Good Luck

           Good Night and Good Luck is the story of Edward R. Murrow’s brave stand against the unfair practices of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the so-called senate “witch-hunts” of the early 1950’s. Murrow was the first and practically the only member of the news media to stand up to what McCarthy was doing--persecuting others with little or no evidence in the name of fighting Communism.

Murrow began with the story of an air-force lieutenant denied due process. Throughout the movie, the same kind of sealed manila envelope, allegedly full of proof that people are communists, threatens Murrow and the CBS employees.  Murrow goes on, despite McCarthy’s allegations of Murrow’s Communist activities. Murrow even disproves the allegations McCarthy made against him on CBS airtime given McCarthy for comment and fact correction. Eventually, the air force lieutenant is reinstated.

It is't all victory for the brave journalists, though. One of the news anchors commits suicide because of pressure from a reviewer, O’Brien, obviously on McCarthy’s side. The anchor, a friend of Murrow's, had already been struggling with the emotional baggage of his divorce, and O'Brien's review eventually put him over the edge. But a lot of people were that upset and desperate--McCarthy's actions ruined many lives.

Fred Friendly, played by Jeff Daniels, asks Murrow before the first newscast if he doesn't think they’re going beyond just reporting the news, and it brought up an interesting concept I remember learning in Principles of Journalism: sometimes, you can’t be “fair and balanced” to each side in reporting the facts. There will be times when one subject in a story you are covering has clearly done something wrong or illogically. At those times, if you are completely fair and without bias toward both sides, you won’t actually be telling the truth. You should never slant the news in any way, which can be done by being “fair and balanced.” You have to report the facts, all of them—especially when nobody else is courageous enough to do so.

 It seemed like, even after McCarthy’s downfall, Murrow’s air time was cut. This didn't seem fair to me, but either way the movie was excellently shot and very educational.