good night, and good luck.

As a film enthusiast it was a cinematic treat to watch George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck. As a student in a journalism class, it was very interesting and refreshing to see the principles of journalism make the jump from textbooks to the screen, as they were portrayed in real life examples of true journalism at play in a very exciting time.

Under considerable trust derived from CBS president William Paley, Edward R. Murrow and his staff at CBS gave a voice to the powerless as they inflicted the comfortable, Joseph McCarthy. In taking on McCarthy, Murrow and others took great effort to maintain a strong sense of journalistic independence.

In the beginning of the film Murrow states, “We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Murrow “tackled the complicated and unobvious” and presented them in a manner that the public could comprehend (The Press, page 70). Our mass media reflect this”. Murrow would not concede to as The Elements of Journalism calls it, “journalism of affirmation”. In this case, Murrow refused to affirm the idea that McCarthy’s allegations contained any truth. However this refusal to affirm McCarthy’s allegations came at a cost. Murrow and Fred Friendly paid for CBS’s newspaper advertisement for the program, lost sponsorship and risked being named a “communist” by McCarthy. In doing so, Murrow and his staff at CBS made it clear that their first loyalty as journalists was to citizens.



In their efforts to enlighten the public by challenging McCarthy’s accusations, Murrow and his staff had to walk a fine line to be independent. They first had to make sure everyone who would be involved in challenging McCarthy was “clean”. This means that they had to have no Communist ties, however small it may be. This precaution was put into place because they knew that as journalists, they “must maintain an independence from those they cover” (The Elements of a Journalist, page 118). Murrow and his staff did not want their reporting to be accused of any biases, this is a precaution that is still practiced in newsrooms today and is taken quite seriously. For example, CNN’s firing of Octavia Nasr for her twitter that jeopardized her independence from her covering of the Middle East. In a time when communist “witch-hunts” were in full swing, Murrow’s producers knew it was crucial that their staff maintain an independence in practice.

Adhering to the elements of the liberal model of journalism, Murrow and his staff made a strong attempt to present themselves as politically neutral. This was seen as the US military was allowed to comment on the firing of Milo Radulovich, an alleged communist. At the pinnacle of their efforts to maintain political neutrality Murrow gave McCarthy himself, time to make unrestricted comments on his program. Murrow exhibited sincere journalistic neutrality as he consistently gave the opportunity to McCarthy to comment on or challenge his reporting. Such a determined effort to present the news in an unbiased manner is a key component of the liberal model of journalism.

Murrow and his staff could have never engaged in such a televised conflict with McCarthy had it not been for the independence granted to them by CBS president William Paley. Paley indeed exhibited the five characteristics that current news companies that have not yet been defeated share, namely: The owner/corporation must be committed citizens first and Journalists must have the final say over the news (The Elements of Journalism). Paley exhibited these characteristics as he allowed Murrow and his staff to air reports on controversial and uncomfortable topics, even when allowing the airing of such reports made Paley himself, extremely uncomfortable.