Final Blog Post

For our final blog post, we were assigned to watch the Academy Award nominated film, "Good Night, and Good Luck." This film was about the relationship between the press and the government during the Joseph McCarthy era in the 1950s. The story depicted the journalist Edward R. Murrow and how his television show became dedicated to showing the atrocities from Senator McCarthy, despite CBS News' point of view.

Image retrieved from Wikipedia.

Transhistoric means that multiple traits or qualities can be cut across periods of time. After watching the film, I noticed that the transhistoric relationship between the press and the government with a society aspiring to democracy during the 1950s is similar to the way the press acts in today's political world. During the McCarthy era, the senator's goal was to accuse Americans of belonging to the Communist party without significant proof. This term was commonly referred to as "McCarthyism" and many that were accused of belonging to the Communist party, didn't actually belong to it.

I believe that there is a transhistoric relationship from this time period to today's world because of the way the press treats President Donald Trump in office. If you turn on Fox News, it will not take long to realize that the journalists are going to defend Trump in all circumstances and blame the left for anything that goes wrong. If you turn on CNN, they are most likely to be blaming Trump for all mistakes, despite if he is actually at fault or not. This parallels to how McCarthy treated the American people. He was so convinced in believing that the Communist party was at fault for all wrongdoings, that he began to accuse innocent people of being involved just because he needed someone to blame.

News sources that are more liberal on the political spectrum, such as CNN, MSNBC, etc., parallel to McCarthy's way of action because many journalists look for the quickest and easiest person to blame. In today's case: Donald Trump. News sources that are more conservative on the political spectrum, such as Fox News, parallel to journalist Murrow's course of action. Murrow was determined to present the facts of all of the wrongdoings by telling his viewers that McCarthy is at fault. This is similar to how conservative news sources point out the false claims from the liberal news sources and other candidates in the opposing party.

Although this is what I noticed as commonalities after watching the movie, it does not mean that the Democratic party is always in the wrong and the Republican party is not. Both parties blame the other no matter the circumstance, especially in the press. Today's political climate consists of many journalists that are more willing to fill their ego by presenting who's at fault instead of telling their followers the truth.

The third clause of the First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of the press." Since it is specifically stated in the Bill of Rights, it means that it is a "fundamental personal right," the strongest type of right in the constitutional system. Every American has the right to say what they want to say and publish what they want to publish. However, it does not always seem like that.

In the film, Murrow's show was owned and aired by CBS News. At the end of the movie, CBS made it very clear that they did not enjoy how Murrow had turned his show from late night entertainment into a political outcry. They decided to cut his daily show to only airing on Sunday evenings and only gave him five shows left before he would be asked to leave the company. This situation accurately depicts how controlling large news corporations can be. I believe it is understandable for a news station to put some limitations on what their shows can do to prevent any harm. However, it appears that CBS was more upset about the content Murrow was producing instead of the way he was producing it.

It made me wonder about how controlling Fox News and CNN must be to their journalists. Although the journalist must believe most, if not everything, they are telling their viewers, if they had the slightest bit of truth that could put their political party in bad light, they would never air it. The values of news organizations focus so heavily on blaming their enemies that their journalists forget the real reason behind their job: telling the truth.

Murrow did a great job of being a true journalist in the film because he presented facts with evidence to back up his claims. His purpose was to expose McCarthy, but he did it in the best interest of the people. He wanted Americans to know his lies and accusations because he believed it was unethical and that it should be stopped. If more American journalists did this today, I believe it would be a lot easier to find a credible news source.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" because it showed the behind the scenes of what it takes to pull off a television show. I think the film did a very good job of depicting the 1950s era through black and white by showing how the news show was produced and emphasizing the values during the McCarthy era. This movie really made me think about how corrupt news stations can be because of the severe lack of wanting to show the facts. I admire Edward R. Murrow for his work in this film and as an aspiring journalist, I hope that I can present the truth through broadcast or print just like him in the future.


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Good Night, and Good Luck