We Need the Luck, Mr. Murrow

By Erin Rose Pfeifer
ep293305@ohio.edu


Good Night and Good Luck portrays an interesting confrontation between newsman Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Although the events depicted are not entirely factual and are more than half a century old, the conflict is just as, if not more applicable to today's journalists as it was in the mid 1950s.

To print or not to print? To air or not to air? To expose or not to expose? The major differences in implications between the Communist witch hunt of the 1950's and today's era is the rate at which rumors, lies and facts can be spread. Back then, it began with an outlandish accusation, was propelled with hearsay and then finalized if a legitimate new media outlet found it newsworthy. Today, all one needs is access to the internet to get someone's reputation questioned, tainted or completely ruined.

The idealistic and optimistic among us like to believe that this has worked in our favor and that, due to the ease of getting tainted information, internet users have become especially cautious about where they are getting their information, the biases the source may have and the original sources used to get the story. They like to think that if McCarthy tried to pull that bologna today, he would be laughed off the internet and told to go back to the loony bin.

But let's face it. Americans are gullible and for the most part, uneducated. And if we are educated, we sure aren't acting like it. How often are you checking out your eggs and milk at the supermarket and look over to the magazine rack to see that the hottest actor in Hollywood is gay? And then a few days later, you realize you forgot the cheese, so you go back, and suddenly he is getting married (to a woman, probably either Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston).

The media will eat up anything they can get their hands on. Some blame the declining economy, closing newspapers and magazines and lack of real news, but whoever or whatever you blame, it's hard not to be a little embarrassed, especially if you are spending $20,000+ a year to learn to become one of them (a journalist). Well, I am.
And watching movies like Goodnight and Good Luck inspire me to attempt to bring about change to our distracted, A.D.D., click-and-go, immediate-gratification-driven youth and the crappy events they call "news."


Here is to working to show people what real news is and how to deliver it with integrity. To establishing a standard of excellence that Murrow and his newscast would be proud of. To having a good night, and not needing the luck.

Check out CNN anchor Jack Cafferty refusing to read a "story" he considered less than newsworthy:



Well done, Mr. Cafferty. Well done.