The movie “Good Night and Good Luck,” staring George Clooney, offers an excellent depiction of the true story in which CBS news helped to bring down Senator McCarthy for his bogus accusations of Communist activity among US military and government employees. Under the leadership of Ed Murrow, CBS succeeded in revealing the falsehoods and deception behind Senator McCarthy’s claims. Despite pressure not to fuel the fire and stir up even more chaos, the CBS network does what they believe is right so that Americans can have true reports of the news. Eventually, Ed Murrow’s show was cancelled, but it wasn’t with regret. He succeeded in shedding light on the true story, and he ends the movie with a remarkable speech in which he stresses the importance of television reporters providing their audience with the truth, not just the trendy information of the time that corporations want them to hear.
The movie takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism; therefore there was no precedent from which to sculpt their actions. Ed Murrow and CBS news acted righteous and morally in their struggle to reveal the truth to Americans, despite the backlash they knew they would receive. They helped to define the role of media and broadcast journalism in a newly-developing society, and made it clear that media should act as a watchdog on government officials so that they cannot abuse their power and provide viewers with inaccurate accounts of the news. This movie offers a very important message of how media broadcasters should act honorably in their actions and always, no matter the penalty, fight for the truth. I think this is a very important message for media correspondents nationwide, and its lesson should be honored and followed by news reporters all throughout society so that the public is always provided with true and accurate information from which to formulate their own views and opinions.
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