I watched CNN’s ive Saturday broadcast of the New York play Good Night, Good Luck. It portrays CBS’s Edward R. Murrow’s challenge to Senataor Joe McCarthy’s political attacks using anti-communist rhetoric.
Set in the early 1950’s the play recreates an era of political name calling not dissimilar to today’s dscourse.
There is a six-minute final address in front of the curtain by George Clooney who plays Murrow. The words are from an actual Murrow broadcast.
It begins questionning whether corporate-owned media(TV is dominant) will support critical discussions in an era of entertainment driven broadcast popularity.
The middle of the “talk” is a collage of quick frames of news clips from the past 70 years interspersed with popular TV shows.
The close is Murrow’s question–not what will politicians do, but rather what are we the people prepared to do?
Here is the final speech from the CNN broadcast. The message is more urgent than ever for our lives, our work places and our country.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hU9bWiazGM)