By
Caitlin Pike Speaking at the London première of Good Night, and Good
Luck, George Clooney said his film has a strong message for today’s
broadcast journalists in the US.
The film, which Clooney wrote,
directed and acts in, pays tribute to a revolutionary episode in
America’s broadcast history when CBS’s Edward R Murrow confronted
Senator Joe McCarthy over his anti-communist witch hunts in the 1950s.
The
drama travels back to the smoky newsroom of See It Now – Murrow’s
investigative programme that took on McCarthy and the House of Un-
American Activities Committee in a broadcast that contributed to
McCarthy being investigated by the Senate.
The film includes
extracts of Murrow’s original script, and as Clooney told the audience
at the première, it translates into a pertinent message for today’s
journalists: “The story you’re about to see is of an anchorman and a
journalist who represented the high watermark of broadcast journalism
in the US.
Related
“I thought it was a good time to talk about issues
again. Not to preach to people, but to raise the debate about the
responsibility of the Fourth Estate to ask difficult questions of any
administration.”
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