Word: murrow
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Edward R. Murrow had a great voice--a sincere and authoritative baritone. His speech was formal and literate. He was a liberal in the great American tradition--less an ideologue than a champion of fair play and common decency. The first thought you have, watching Good Night, and Good Luck in the age of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, is one of intense nostalgia. By the standards of modern television--or even television in his time--Ed Murrow was an imposing figure...
Even before David Strathairn opens his mouth, though, the sober grimace on his long face tells you that something is wrong. He’s playing legendary CBS News broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, and the year is 1958, as it turns out. But Strathairn is talking directly to you as he delivers a speech from the dais, meeting your eyes in 2005 as he rips into a complacent culture’s “allergy to disturbing information...
...Good Night, and Good Luck” proceeds to treat that malady by bombarding viewers with the strongest dose of unsettling history that Clooney can fit into 93 minutes. The anxious tone intensifies as the film flashes back to 1953, where Murrow and his colleagues at CBS have just been pressured into signing loyalty oaths in order to keep their jobs...
...that is, except the superhuman Murrow, who uses his position as the face of CBS’ popular “See it Now” news broadcast to air McCarthy’s abuses to millions of viewers. His fastidiously fact-checked exposes are rewarded by all-too-familiar accusations of bias, but as played by Strathairn, Murrow is far too hard-boiled to crack under such intimidation tactics...
...newsroom presents a considerably more noble alternate reality, though an equally chaotic one. Its reporters are constantly being hassled by intruders—managerial types with their eyes on the bottom line, jingoistic pundits, and dunderheaded military commanders who demand to review footage before it is broadcast. Watching Murrow and producer Fred W. Friendly (played by Clooney) fearlessly rebuff these would-be defilers of the fourth estate is enough to make a college journalist break a sweat...