Thirty minutes later we were on the way to diner and a movie. The movie, the new George Clooney film, "Good Night And Good Luck" about the Edward R. Murrow, CBS broadcast, "See It Now" 1954 report on Senator Joseph R McCarthy, Democrat, Wisconsin. If you are not sure who Ed Murrow was, what "See It Now" was or who Senator McCarthy was, you don't know about history.(A little Google goes a long way on Edward R. Murrow) History of the country during a time called "McCarthyism", a television show that pioneered a genre that allowed "60 Minutes", "20/20", "Nightline" and "Dateline" to be created ("60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt was a producer on "See It Now."), and a man who was trusted long before Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted man" on television. (Yes, Murrow is a hero or mine, long before I found out he was born here in Guilford County. Did you ever wonder who Murrow Blvd was named after? Edward R., of course!)
The phrase "good night and good luck" was Ed Murrow's sig out line of every broadcast he did. It originated from his time as a reporter for CBS Radio based in London during World War II where he reported the Blitz on London and how the Allies defeated Nazism and Fascism in Europe. During his time in London, his riveting reports from the London subway during the bombings and reports from B-29 bombers over Europe created the "war correspondent" and pioneered "electronic news gathering" as we know it and made CBS News a real contender with David Sarnoff's NBC News in the 1940's. For many years, Murrow WAS CBS News (they called him the "conscience" of CBS News) and single handedly built the juggernaut reputation that Walter Cronkite rode to success on and Dan Rather tore down.
Radio was Murrow's real love. Murrow wrote and spoke in such a fashion that is no longer practiced, much less taught. He spoke in pictures. He could tell you about a fly landing on you and you could feel it as the real thing.
Murrow was reluctant to move from radio into television for several years, because he saw no value being expended for television in the wasteland of mindless programming of sitcoms, games shows and serials. He continued to do weekly long form radio news investigative programs such as "Hear It Now" even after coming to television. When Murrow was finally coaxed into moving to television, he brought his "Hear It Now" radio show to television as "See It Now." Murrow, a man who upheld the highest standards of journalism demanded that television fulfill its potential as a tool of learning and civic duty to inform and create debate on important issues that related to all Americans, something that brought Murrow to odds with the suits at CBS on an almost weekly basis for years. Then, as today, this type of programming doesn't pay many bills and is expensive to produce and hard to get on the air and then keep on the air.
In exchange for this "civic exercise" with programs like "See It Now" CBS required Murrow to do cheap to produce, highly rated and profitable celebrity fluff programs such as "Person to Person" where Murrow interviewed celebs about their lives, careers, and upcoming projects. The example used in the movie was the interview with pianist Liberace. During the Liberace interview, Murrow (played by David Strathairn) is seen looking at an off camera monitor of a feed of Senator McCarthy railing against Air Force Reserve Lt. Milo Radulovich, who was severed from the Air Force because his father had been rumored to be connected with the Communist Party in some fashion in the 1930's, setting off the now famous on air confrontation between Murrow and Senator McCarthy and resulting in ending "McCarthyism" or the practice of "Red Listing" people who had innocent connections with people who may or may not have been Communists.
The cast includes Clooney as the producer and friend of Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, and an all star cast who obviously worked for scale in this independent film such as Robert Downey, Jr, Jeff Daniels, Patricia Clarkson, Tate Donovan, and Frank Langella as CBS Chairman, William Paley, just to name a few. The movie is a presentation of 2929 Entertainment and Section 8 Productions. Section 8 is the production company of Clooney (who also directed the film) while 2929 Entertainment is the financial investment company of Dallas Mavericks owner and owner of the first all high definition cable channel HDNet, Mark Cuban. Cuban and his partner Todd Wagner created 2929 Entertainment to create films that would eventual be shown on HDNet and its all movie sibling channel HDNet Movies in a similar manner as Ted Turner did in the early 1990's with his Turner Pictures that produced films that were shown in theaters and then went to Tuner broadcast properties (the most famous being the 1994 Civil War epic, "Gettysburg").
Clooney stays very close to the historical aspects of the story and does not, as has been reported by some media outlets, take a swipe at FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. A simple history lesson would show that the worlds spoken by the Murrow character, are indeed real words spoke by the real Murrow in the 1950's about television then that are still very true today and I am sure to some in the audience, thought that the Murrow character was talking about television in the 21st Century.
The story only covers 4 years of the 29 year Murrow era at CBS, but the story in itself is riveting by showing how the fear of being labeled as a Communist by McCarthy paralyzed the nation, CBS and worse, the staff of "See It Now" and shows what television can do when it puts its mind to it to do good for the public by informing and providing a start for debate on issues that affect all citizens.
Now some may see this film as the early media trying to dictate policy or espousing editorial comment as news, but it was the first time that the news media took a stand on an issue that gripped the nation, how one politician kept the nation in fear of words and how one man in the news media who wasn't afraid to take him on using good journalism with verifiable evidence, in this case Senator McCarthy's own words and actions. It was televisions first attempt at reporting a national controversial topic and finest hour that we in the media keep looking to happen again (9/11 being another time when television brought the nation together on a single subject) and it motivates many reporters and people behind the camera, even today.
Murrow and Friendly went on to produce other socially self introspective pieces for "See It Now" including Murrow's swain song in 1961, "Harvest of Shame" about the problems of migrant workers who worked long hard hours to pick the vegetables for Americans diner tables for very low wages and a 1959 report on how science was beginning to raise red flags on the dangers of smoking (Murrow was a chain smoker and during all of his broadcasts were seen smoking on camera). The television series M*A*S*H parodied one of Murrow's ground breaking techniques when the war reporter Clive Roberts "reported from the 4077th" about the Korean War. During Christmas 1952, Murrow went to Korea for an on location report entitled "This is Korea...Christmas 1952" to show the folks back home what the troops were going through.
Murrow left CBS News in 1961 disillusioned with CBS management's obsession with game shows and serials and, in his mind, lack of attention to the real genius of television to teach and inform. He died in 1965 of lung cancer.
Edward R. Murrow (photo from Museum of Broadcast Communications)My rating - 4 Stars
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