"Good Night and Good Luck"

“Good Night and Good Luck” is a movie that focuses on the period of American history known as McCarthyism where Americans were highly fearful of the threat and spread of communism. During this period of high alertness, Senator Joseph McCarthy spearheads the initiative to “weed out” communists hiding in America and more specifically Washington D.C. Edward Murrow, a broadcast journalist for CBS News and who was played by David Strathairn, fights to expose Senator McCarthy and keep journalism as objectional as possible. His reporting fights against the constant threat of being forced to report on stories that were untrue, spread false propaganda regarding communism, and help to save individuals from being labeled as communists falsely.

Joe McCarthy as a senator who spearheaded the “communist witch hunts” and who McCarthyism derives its name from would make accusations against people by labeling them as communist without much evidence. This was clearly evident when Senator McCarthy held a senate hearing to interrogate a woman who was accused of being a communist spy while working at Pentagon. These are both claims which the woman denied outright. It was even more apparent when he accused Edward Murrow on his own CBS show of being communist despite little evidence to back this accusation. Murrow quickly exposed McCarthy’s investigation of the woman and a federal investigation into McCarthy soon came to fruition much to the excitement of Murrow and the CBS team. The movie ends with Murrow winning the day by giving a speech describing how television and the media can be used to negatively distract individuals from real world problems and solutions or for the overall betterment of individuals.

The movie does an amazing job of demonstrating how different leaders perform under pressure as Murrow strived to maintain his principles even in the face of criticism and opposing power. Despite, the attempt to stop Murrow from doing his job by being an unbiased and honesty reporter, he remained strong against the opposition at his job to sensor him and Senator McCarthy almost simultaneously. This is contrast to other individuals at his job that were willing to “lie low” to avoid conflict and risk losing money in the process. This is also in contrast to Senator McCarthy as Murrow was able to stand strong in his conviction and remain honest while Senator McCarthy seemed to lack the ability to do the same.

Lastly, I would like to iterate that I have never been a communist nor do I agree with the communist style of government. Communism is the work of dictators taking Karl Marx’s manifesto and applying it in a different fashion then intended leading to multiple country’s citizens being oppressed by their governments and having their freedoms restricted. Karl Marx’s real intention was for every one to own everything no one anything. This is not the case in communism where the government much owns and or controls many of the aspects of society which often leads to restrictions of personal freedoms and clear human rights violations.