Good night, and good luck

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty…We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent…We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

Edward R. Murrow, champion of free speech

Good Night, and Good Luck is the stunning new film by George Clooney and tells the story of CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and the struggle against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s paranoid anti-Communism campaign. Murrow and his team brilliantly dissected the lies and distortions told by McCarthy and his media-cheerleaders and found a generally willing CBS management to back them. How things have changed. “Terrorism” is the new Communism and hysteria is always a fresh headline away.

Today, corporate news values dictate that “consensus” is reached with government and controversy avoided. Clooney may have made a film about a different age but it’s quite clear he’s aiming his anti-censorship message at today’s self-appointed moral guardians and continual attempts at banning “seditious” speech or content.

Clooney focuses solely on the team’s journalistic struggles and barely acknowledges personal lives. It’s a successful ploy, and allows the striking cast room to develop their own personal reasons for challenging McCarthyism.

Now is the time to dissent, challenge and agitate, in an age where lies seem to carry more weight than truth. “Good Night, and Good Luck” shows us the way.