"Good Night and Good Luck"

Last week in class, we viewed the film Good Night and Good Luck which was about a news show in the 1950s dealing with the exploitation by Senator Joseph McCarthy of people he accused of being communists. The main characters of the movie, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, sought to bring him down and prove that he was falsely accusing these people.

The film related really well to a lot of what we have discussed in class in regards to the responsibilities of the press. I think that this film shows that sometimes in media doing the right thing is not always easy, or allowed. A lot of the people who worked for the station were worried that they would get accused of being communist if they were seen publicly denouncing the accusations of McCarthy.

While the film was a little bit slow-moving, it really showed what the media goes through. When they know that something is wrong and that they have the power to expose it, it may not always be in their best interests to do so. I would like to hope that there are still some people like Murrow and Friendly working in the media today so that if there were a situation where the media found out that something was going on, I would get to know. The sad part is, however, that I am not really sure that there are that many people left like that.