More Than Meets the Eye

The movie Good Night and Good Luck may seem like a movie about CBS reporter Edward Murrow and how he successfully was able to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy and his Communist "witch hunt", but in fact it does so much more than that. It makes the viewer question what news should be all about, and what they should cover. Do we want our news to be all about "entertainment", or do we want reporters to actually keep us informed about world events and politics and actually make us think (omg the horror, the horror!). It also brings up issues of censorship in the media. How much should media be censored? Is it for our own protection, or should we have a right to know everything that is going on? These are some of the issues the movie brings up through its hour and a half run time.

We need more reporters like Edward Murrow nowadays. Despite pressure from his superiors to not pursue the story on McCarthy and Communist accusations from the government, Mr. Murrow stood his ground and did what he knew was right. He wasn't some "crazy liberal" as some people deemed him for calling Senator McCarthy out...he saw injustice occurring in our government and did what the duties of a reporter should be. If it was not for him, how long would it have taken for someone to take down Senator McCarthy? Who would have had the courage to stand up to him? What is annoying is that many people knew that what McCarthy was doing was downright insane...many compared it to the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600's. I feel that most news we see today is very light, containing little substance. Investigative reporting is rare today, partly because it is seen as "boring" to most of the population. Sorry that investigating the genocide in Darfur isn't as entertaining as The Biggest Loser or American Idol.

I hope that this movie makes you think about the changes in our news media today, and what effect it may have on the quality of news reporting.