
I put on a DVD of George Clooney’s film “Good Night and Good Luck” the other evening. Although 20 years old, it is just as relevant, if not more so, today.
It’’s the story of U.S. news reporter (radio, journalism and television), Edward R Murrow, who became world famous during World War II when he ran the European bureau for CBS, sometimes broadcasting from the stairs of London’s St. Martin in the Field Church as the Germans were bombing the city.
After the war, he moved to television and set the standard for reporting. The film is named after his sign-off line.
Murrow was excellent and trusted, but not always revered by his CBS employers because he dared to challenge those, especially in politics, who wanted to stifle free speech.
This was the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy who tried to make a name for himself by viciously attacking anyone who had liberal ideas or had leanings that made them “a threat to the United States.” Morrow and other reporters were in his sights.
Among his targets were civil servants working in the State Department and all other government agencies, writers and all the professionals in Hollywood, from A-list actors down to the technicians.
The public interrogation began, “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party.” Some of the witnesses admitted they had been in the past but renounced their ideology; others said they had never joined and some refused to answer. A lot of careers were ruined.
Once people realized that McCarthy and his ilk threatened their First Amendment rights, some of Hollywood ‘s best-known actors reacted. Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart and wife Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball and others organized the Committee for the First Amendment. The battle between sides was engaged.
Murrow wanted to do an exposé on McCarthy, his tactics, and harm he was causing so many people. CBS executives stopped him because they were afraid of McCarthy and how they might lose their broadcasting license.
Eventually, Murrow prevailed, presented his exposé on the senator and there were sharp reactions from both liberals and conservatives.
Eventually McCarthy was censored by the Senate and went home to Wisconsin, where he soon died in disgrace. Murrow, the major TV networks and the right to continue exercising free speech prevailed.
This is a constant struggle on many fronts. All religions, including Christianity, have a set of beliefs. Those who subscribe to them are considered orthodox; those who do not are labeled heretics.
The same is true for scientists and, of course, in politics. Being a heretic can have serious repercussions. It is true of performing and visual arts as well.
When it comes to politics and the First Amendment, few things are more important yet divisive. In our country, it has split friends and family from the American Revolution through the Civil War, Reconstruction and on till now.
Some of us may not be joining family members this year for the holidays because of different views, and that’s just the way it is, as disappointing and miserable as it will be for those excluded.
There has been chatter about the U.S. becoming like Germany or Italy under dictators in the 1920s and’ 30s. We overlook the comparisons between now and the early 1950s. To do that is a mistake. None of us wants to be told by anyone what we may or may not read, the news we follow or anything else.
More important, we do not want to live in fear of those who accuse us of being a heretic. My sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Wilson had stacks of anti-Red pamphlets on a counter. We were to take them home, read them and could get extra credit for doing so.
On Mondays, she asked if our parents had read the pamphlets. They were provided by the far-right John Birch Society who were trying to outlaw chlorine in our water.
The extra credit was a bright shiny sticky star. Mine was red, although at the time I didn’t see the irony in earning a red star for reading anti-communist propaganda.
I think Mrs. Wilson lived in fear of the JBS, PTA and other self-appointed watchdogs over our morals and politics. Like the made-up characters in the pamphlets, she was worried that a student might say something bad about her to their parents, or a parent might snitch on her to one of the local groups.
All of which explains why Henry Fonda’s daughter Jane and many more Hollywood actors and directors, journalists and others have joined the relaunching of the Committee for the First Amendment.
Members of the Continental Congress and] delegates to the Constitutional Convention were never a bunch of well-behaved choir boys waiting to have tea with a bishop. Almost every administration has had its own opponents. Every public policy decision was popular among some and opposed by others.
First Amendment rights came until attack from 1917 to 1920 during the Red Scare when Attorney General Mitchell Palmer tried to deprive anyone who did not agree with him of their rights. The second Red Scare came under the auspices of McCarthy and an assortment of organizations. Some believe it happened again when there was a push against those who disagreed with the government’s Covid-19 mandates.
And once this episode comes to an end, assuming we haven’t tossed away our democracy, it will happen again sometime in the future. It is a ceaseless but important battle to win if we are going to keep our form of government.