We Still Need the Same Luck in the 21st Century

Alivia Nuzzo
aliviacnuzzo@gmail.com

Good Night and Good Luck ultimately portrays one of the most chilling ethical dilemmas between journalists’ responsibility and duty to report the truth to his or her public and the potential threat to a journalist’s (or in this case, a CBS television host) reputation, leading viewers to question journalistic integrity and truth.

However, like the movie portrays, the journalist’s crucial role as the government’s watchdog requires constant investigation of the truth, intellect and morality of the representatives of this nation’s citizens. Without journalists, the threat of “branding” certain issues by government officials to work in their favor becomes increasingly threatening and potentially has the power to sway the nation’s people to believe falsity over truth.

Today, we live in a world where these same ethical dilemmas are faced by journalists every day. In Keith Olbermann’s (MSNBC) response to Donald Rumsfeld’s speech before the American Legion a few years ago in 2006, the broadcast journalist describes and analyzes the same sorts of ethical dilemmas, alluding to the words of Edward R. Murrow, the CBS broadcast host portrayed in Good Night, and Good Luck. “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends on evidence and due process of law.”