Blog #4

"Good Night, and Good Luck" reaction post

Watching "Good Night, and Good Luck" has led me to realize that journalists must continue to expose our government for wrong doings as it still tries to control what the media says about it and about the situations that it gets itself into.

"Good Night, and Good Luck" covered the tension between journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin, with Murrow exposing McCarthy for his improper accusations against people for their association with Communism. This was a huge step in the right direction, to stop much of the division in the country at the time and to stop the horrors that people faced with the fear of Russia invading.

At the time citizens were fearful of one another and struggled to trust others in society. They especially feared the government because Senator McCarthy accused individuals of being disloyal to the government. McCarthy wreaked havoc upon the American people from 1949 to 1957 as he used his power in government to ruin peoples' reputations and livelihoods. He misused his powers "as chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations," and would interrogate people publicly without having any real evidence. This resulted in people losing their jobs and others viewing them differently because they never had the opportunity to defend themselves.

Due to McCarthy's reputation, many journalists and citizens were fearful to stand up to him. They were unsure of what he would do to them because he stopped at no lengths to take anyone down who threatened his power and disagreed with the government. This fear that was created during the 1940s and 1950s would be under the term chilling effect. A chilling effect is essentially when numerous individuals feel obstructed or discouraged to perform their natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. When citizens and journalists were scared to express their actual feelings about McCarthy, they self-censored themselves. As the American people feared being publicly humiliated and under intense heat from McCarthy, he was capable of wrongfully taking advantage of many people throughout his years in the Senate.

I found Murrow's actions at CBS to be extremely heroic because he was finally able to direct attention towards McCarthy's inappropriate power trip.

Without Murrow calling out McCarthy, who knows how many other people he would have ruined. My biggest takeaway from the movie was that you can't be afraid to take risks as a journalist, even if that means possibly getting in trouble with the government.

It is a journalist's job to find the truth and provide the truth to the public. Journalists are not tied to the government at all, and therefore, are required to expose the government's wrongdoing if they are aware of them. Up until Murrow took the risk to expose McCarthy, the journalists at the time were doing a disservice to the public. They knew that what McCarthy was doing was wrong but feared that they would lose their livelihoods and preferred not to say anything as a result. After learning about the destruction that the government can cause in this movie and in society currently, I have learned that as a future journalist, I must put my fears aside and prioritize serving the public to the best of my ability.

The government should provide journalists with insight, but they shouldn't coerce and threaten journalists to cover stories with a certain agenda. The government isn't perfect in the slightest, and journalists cannot look the other way, or else the government will take advantage of the public, who are unaware of the secrets and lies surrounding the government's business.

Our country has been heavily divided for years, as seen during the Red Scare and during the outbreak of Covid-19.

The uncertainty and fear circling around society in the 40s and 50s is much like the atmosphere during quarantine because nobody knew what to believe, and people trying to speak out against the government's decisions were being silenced. The issues from Covid are still being tackled today, as seen in the Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri.

This case also demonstrates a chilling effect created from the government, as many individuals claim that government officials censored certain opinions that went against theirs, especially those that went against how the government was handling the pandemic. 

The plaintiffs were fearful of what power the government held over them because the government took advantage of their power and forced social media platforms to censor these individuals' content. They wanted the content to be hidden from the public because it went against what the government believed and could possibly sway the public to not believe in what the government was saying or doing. The government wants to always stay in power and have people fully believing in them, but these plaintiffs threatened the reputation of the government. The government felt the need to involve social media platforms and threaten them as well because much was at stake with people dying every day, and they couldn't afford to have the public lose trust in them at the peak of a crisis.

I would consider the era during the Red Scare and the current era we are in to be called the terror on journalism. 

This era does not seem to be ending anytime soon because the government will always feel the need to insert themselves where they don't belong. Journalists need to continue to fight back and be brave when it comes to confronting the government because tensions escalate with more and more issues coming about every day. If the public is unaware of the wrong doings of the government, no change will be made when it is needed. 

It is scary to think that the terror on journalism, where journalists are under constant threat to have their lives ruined continues, but I now understand the importance of speaking out. As seen in the film, all it takes is one person or organization to take on the government and make the public aware of what is going on. This is essential to make sure that the government and the way the country is ran does not become too out of control and one sided. We need people to hold others accountable or havoc will reign supreme.

I hope that down the line, I can be one of these people who speaks out fearlessly and shows the public that not everything is what they were originally told.