2-25-06, 9:34 am
GIVEN the current political climate of government-sponsored terrorism in support of the US war on the world, it's timely to tell of a time when communist witch-hunts were promoted as the paranoia of the day.
Although only his second feature film at the helm, George Clooney has proved that he's prepared to set up a soapbox to denounce policies that he considers inimical to the state of democracy in the US today.
His subject? McCarthyism. The philosophy of fear and terrorism in the 1950s that is now being so assiduously exhumed by George W Bush's supporters, not least the toadies bumming up to Blair.
For those who don't know, Senator Joe McCarthy followed in the wake of the nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and promoted the notion of the 'big lie' on the basis that, if repeated often enough, it would ring true.
Filmed in different shades of black and white, Good Night and Good Luck relates the story of Ed Murrow, the man who is credited with initiating the fightback against the perversions of McCarthy.
The 'junior senator' - as Murrow addressed him - used his position on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to smear anybody who disagreed with US policy as a communist.
Never mind that they might not have had anything to do with communism, during the cold war, they would be branded as traitors, much like Bush is doing with those who oppose the Patriot Act.
Obviously, Murrow wasn't the first to fight the battle for democracy. He was simply the first in the mass media who thought it necessary to use his exalted position to speak out against enemies of the first amendment.
Naturally, there were many communists who had spoken out and suffered, not least New York city councillor Ben Davis who, along with 10 other communist leaders, was jailed for five years under the notorious Smith Act.
They were accused of 'advocating Marxism-Leninism' and were condemned for fomenting a violent insurrection when not even a shred of proof could be produced against them.
It mattered not. Having defined communism as a contemporary evil, guilt by association was used as a means to attack anybody that some opportunist identified as an enemy of the people.
It opens as it continues - as a film of talking heads in a claustrophobic haze of cigarette smoke accompanied by jazz music, as the men in the newsroom begin to exhibit the paranoia engendered by McCarthy's hectoring campaign.
McCarthy is never presented in personal terms, the film using news clips of the man as he employed his inquisitorial techniques to bully witnesses to either damn themselves or damn others if they wished to avoid prosecution.
Everything is portrayed in a microcosm - the reign of fear in the rest of the country only being hinted at - and thus might not be readily understandable by those not in the know.
In fact, apart from not including any communists - they had to ensure that the editorial team had no leftist connections - the only example of the more cruel consequences of the purge is the suicide of a colleague.
Nevertheless, given the dearth of films on the matter - the best include The Front and Fellow Traveller - it would be mealy-mouthed of me to put it down for concentrating on Murrow's narrow brief.
Suffice to say, David Straithairn puts in an incredible performance as the man himself, more than ably supported by Clooney as his editor Fred Friendly and Frank Langella as the boss of CBS.
During these early days of television, everything was makeshift. They were only able to do live presentation by having Friendly under the desk poking Murrow's knees with a pen to give him his cue.
It emphasises the sort of Machiavellian intrigue necessary to defeat the underhanded machinations of the management, driven, as always, by the exigencies of their corporate sponsors.
Murrow and Friendly even offered to stump up the money when a sponsor withdrew - a factor underscored by collaging in adverts for cigarettes that promoted them as health-enhancing.
Importantly, Murrow points out that the role of a journalist cannot be even-handed - 'there's no such thing as impartiality' - especially if the media is controlled by commercial or political interests.
This is the rub that's upset the right-wing pundits, horrified at the idea of independent, investigative journalists being prepared to challenge corporate control of the media.
Even worse, there are those who consider themselves liberals pandering to the notion of some mythical editorial disinterestedness, describing political partisanship as inimical to a free press.
Campaigning against such nonsense is as relevant today as it was during McCarthyism, since the news is increasingly being filtered through embedded journalists before it becomes subject to the censors.
From Morning Star
