There is good news and bad news about the message in the Broadway play, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” that was broadcast live Saturday night on CNN. I watched the performance starring George Clooney as pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, and it was both compelling and frightening, especially as a member of the media.
The play is set in 1954 when the Cold War between the United States and Russia presented the daily threat that either the U.S. or Russia could push the button and unleash near annihilation. So present was the threat during the Cold War that schools routinely had drills instructing students what to do if the bomb was dropped while they were in school. As insane as the notion is, students were taught to get under their desks as a way of protecting themselves.
The Cold War raged from 1947 to 1991 and several generations lived with the fear of what would happen if two superpowers reached a point where launching nukes was an option. The threat of communism spreading and reaching the borders of the United States was quite real.
These reminders about the active presence of the Cold War are an important prelude to talking about the broadcast of the play, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
The threat of nuclear war can be compared to the threats to our freedoms that were established by our Founding Fathers. Since the Trump Administration returned to the White House in January of this year, there has been a general lack of respect for the Constitution and many laws that have been well established in America. The constant court challenges and the lawsuits and threats of more lawsuits demonstrate to all Americans that the current administration possesses a dangerous comfort with disregarding established laws and legal norms. Some of the challenges to our laws and legal norms shine a light on a sitting president who appears to share an affinity for an authoritarian form of government.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” shows us what happens when distrust in the media grows and when corporations take control of news content - both relative to the current relationship between the news media and society.
The play focuses on the Murrow’s broadcasts, who challenged any idea of a congenial relationship between the news media and society and the attempts by corporations to put money ahead of journalism. Bill Paley, who was the chief executive at CBS when Murrow was on the air, boldly told Murrow that the corporation would not interfere with his editorializing, but also insisted that the editorializing not jeopardize CBS.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” specifically used Murrow’s journalistic attack on junior Senator Joe McCarthy’s vicious crusade to “out” any communists working in the media. McCarthy’s crusade targeted the wives, friends, and even casual associates of anyone who had attended a meeting of the Communist Party, or even read a pro-communist pamphlet. McCarthy’s crusade even turned toward Hollywood and attempted to expose any actor, no matter how big, who was a communist sympathizer. Many actors were falsely accused of being pro-communist and their careers and personal lives were impacted.
During the Cold War in the 1950s in America, the threat of being called a communist sympathizer in some ways parallels the division in America today between President Trump’s MAGA supporters and everyone else. McCarthy wanted to expose and attack anyone in the news media who might sympathize with communists in the same way that President Trump seems to want to punish anyone in the news media who does not promote his policies, words, and actions. There are frightening parallels between the damning of anyone who was a communist sympathizer then, and anyone who does not blindly support the current administration now. The hate often associated with the judgment of anyone who does not agree with Trump can be compared to the hate of communist sympathizers.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” made profound points that are mirrored in politics today.
“The line between investigation and prosecution is thin.”
“We cannot defend freedom abroad if we cannot protect it at home.”
Murrow stated in jest that anyone who opposes McCarthy must be a communist. Today, anyone who does not agree with President Trump is not a true American.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” was written 20 years ago and the main point of the play was to alarm Americans that our First Amendment freedoms were under attack by the government. Twenty years later this reality is frighteningly relevant.
Today, networks see the news as revenue-generating departments and as long as the goal of the news is to attract the largest possible audience for ratings that are used to generate the revenue, then the news will be governed by the same principles that govern any form of entertainment. What is most important to the audience is no longer as important as giving the audience what it wants in order to attract and hold their attention.
The current entertainment milieu of the news media will not change in the foreseeable future. That’s why it’s important for consumers of the news media to possess a clear understanding of the motives of the news.
The Trump administration has demonstrated an attitude that is based on satisfying the needs and desires of Trump himself, with no regard to the precedents set by our Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
But there is good news and bad news in the similarities between the past and the present. The bad news is that we are experiencing a scary challenge to our country’s democracy (or a constitutional republic if you want to be picky) - the good news is that we can look back and take comfort in the fact that Edward R. Murrow, the journalist, exposed the evil doings of Sen. Joe McCarthy and that led to him being censured by the Senate. True and factual journalism won - McCarthy lost and the current administration should pay attention to history.
Every broadcast today should end with “Good Night, and Good Luck” with emphasis on “Good Luck.”
