People don’t often view journalists as fighters. They are often seen as passive, gathering and documenting information in the background. Yet journalists have their own fights that they must win, battles that test their courage and threaten their safety or reputation. Often, the battle is against the very people that are the subjects of reports. Such is the case in the award-winning film “Good Night, And Good Luck.”
The film details the investigation and coordinated takedown of US Senator Joseph McCarthy, who uses the paranoia of communism in the 1950’s US to fear monger citizens into his belief system. It is the true story of Edward Murrow, the CBS reporter committed to reporting only facts and truth, who spearheaded the conflict. The film shows one aspect of the often-complex relationship between the press and the government. In some cases, such as war, the press and government march in tune, but when journalists look inward and report on the government themselves, a fierce battle can occur.
The film, set in the 50s, has a shocking amount of relevance to journalism and politics today. One of the most poignant and familiar elements of the film was the concept of “McCarthyism,” a term coined to describe campaigns levying unfair and untrue accusations on the basis of fear, modern day witch hunts. Unfortunately, I feel as though McCarthyism has not only survived, but has thrived in recent years. President Donald Trump in the months leading up to the 2020 election utilized fear mongering to try and convince voters of how the country would change under Biden. In September of 2020, he even tweeted “Suburban voters are pouring into the Republican Party because of the violence in Democrat run cities and states. If Biden gets in, this violence is ‘coming to the Suburbs’, and FAST. You could say goodbye to your American Dream!” Trump’s comments remind me of the idea that communists were lurking to destroy America and American values; only now, it is Democrats instead of communists. Politics have evolved in recent years to focus on fearing those who should be our allies, our own countrymen.
Unfortunately, the media has developed such a bias that you would be hard pressed to find any facts and truth on any of the major television news networks. Most of what they produce is opinion pieces and reports clouded in their own beliefs. That is a huge difference from the film, in which journalistic integrity and media responsibility is given massive importance. Murrow views TV as a tool to educate the American people, an avenue to report the truth to a widespread audience. In turn, he remarks about the power of television and how it must be handled properly. He fears that misuse of TV could be a threat to the education of the American people. Television, in his eyes, was intellectual and truthful, not entertainment and fluff.
It appears that world in which news television has strayed from the truth and moved to entertainment is fully upon us, and that his fears are our reality. I found myself almost amused by how honest and dedicated Murrow was, which is a disturbing fact that such integrity is so unusual in today’s journalism. I found his work, and the film, to be inspiring, and truly hope that we can return to journalism such as that, work that pushes boundaries and seeks to educate and inform, not scare and enrage.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trumps-use-of-fear-and-anxiety-to-motivate-his-voters/
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