For those unfamiliar with McCarthy and the political/social mayhem he caused 50 years ago -- along with the vigilante movement he spawned ("McCarthyism") -- here's a brief primer. Waving what he claimed were lists of names of alleged Communists inside the State Department and elsewhere in the government, and denouncing citizens left and right for alleged "communist sympathies," and with few in academia, the media and government willing to take him on and risk being called a "pinko" or worse, McCarthy became the locus of malevolent power in America, dispensing a kind of toxic poison all around the country that created fear and kept people from fully exercising their rights as citizens. Keep your mouth shut and your head down -- that was the operating principle in the McCarthy period.
McCarthy's downfall was that he didn't know where to stop, or when; indeed, he believed he was unstoppable. But after hounding show-biz personalities and academics and media reporters and lower-level government employees, McCarthy began attacking the U.S. Army leadership, including war-hero General George Marshall, at which point former four-star general Dwight David Eisenhower, now President Eisenhower, had had enough. The battle was joined, and CBS star newsman Edward R. Murrow attacked McCarthy frontally and wounded him enough so that others, including Boston attorney Joseph Welch and McCarthy's fellow Senators, could finish him off.
But you don't get a lot of this important layering-history in "Good Night, and Good Luck," which prefers to focus almost exclusively and insularly on the battle between Murrow/CBS and McCarthy. But McCarthy's arrogant recklessness went far beyond the mass media. One of my former university teaching colleagues, for example, had been denounced by a touring McCarthy as a "communist sympathizer" from the stage of the university where he taught; my colleague (who, of course, was no pinko sympathizer, just one of the few academics in the loyalty-oath McCarthy era still courageous enough to ask questions) lost that job and, even though he located another teaching position years later, he was emotionally scarred, easily frightened and very afraid to speak his mind in public. Others suffered similar harrassments even though their only crime was having names similar to the real suspects. It was a true witch-hunt, with people naming names willy nilly -- or being forced to publicly denounce their parents -- just to clear their own.
THE POLITICS BEHIND WITCH-HUNTING
The unspoken assumption in "Good Night, and Good Luck" is that there may have been a few Communists inside and outside the government that were worth paying serious attention to, but if there were, laws and procedures were in place for uncovering and dealing with them; the glory of our country's system is that one can pay attention to the civil liberties afforded suspects even when going after them legally. The unspoken assumption in our own time is that there may be al-Qaida sleeper cells inside the U.S., but, even if that were true, you don't need to use a sledgehammer to kill some gnats, wrecking the entire Constitutional house in the process.
McCarthy was encouraged by Republicans in the 1950s to rampage around looking for supposed Communists -- and bullying everyone in his path -- because it would reap the party political advantage in the post-World War II Cold War hysteria. Republicans today encourage, or at least acquiesce to, the Bush Administration's incompetent rampaging in search of "terrorist" suspects, shredding badly the protections of the Constitution, because it serves their electoral advantage in a society frightened by the prospect of future terrorist attacks.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" -- which, in a brilliant stroke, stars Joseph McCarthy as himself (from newscasts of the time) -- is not a consistently great movie. It barely captures the social sweep and damage done by McCarthyism outside the CBS newsroom, and in its desire to glorify the courageous work of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (played brilliantly by David Straithairn) and his colleague Fred Friendly (Clooney), it overlooks that fact that others more courageous took on McCarthy long before they did. But, despite its flaws, it's a riveting and socially important film, one we need to ruminate upon for its messages for our own time and situation -- lest we continue to repeat bad history.#
Bernard Weiner for nearly two decades reviewed movies and plays for the San Francisco Chronicle. A Ph.D. in government & international relations, he has taught at various universities and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org). To comment, write >> crisispapers@comcast.net <<.
McCarthy's downfall was that he didn't know where to stop, or when; indeed, he believed he was unstoppable. But after hounding show-biz personalities and academics and media reporters and lower-level government employees, McCarthy began attacking the U.S. Army leadership, including war-hero General George Marshall, at which point former four-star general Dwight David Eisenhower, now President Eisenhower, had had enough. The battle was joined, and CBS star newsman Edward R. Murrow attacked McCarthy frontally and wounded him enough so that others, including Boston attorney Joseph Welch and McCarthy's fellow Senators, could finish him off.
But you don't get a lot of this important layering-history in "Good Night, and Good Luck," which prefers to focus almost exclusively and insularly on the battle between Murrow/CBS and McCarthy. But McCarthy's arrogant recklessness went far beyond the mass media. One of my former university teaching colleagues, for example, had been denounced by a touring McCarthy as a "communist sympathizer" from the stage of the university where he taught; my colleague (who, of course, was no pinko sympathizer, just one of the few academics in the loyalty-oath McCarthy era still courageous enough to ask questions) lost that job and, even though he located another teaching position years later, he was emotionally scarred, easily frightened and very afraid to speak his mind in public. Others suffered similar harrassments even though their only crime was having names similar to the real suspects. It was a true witch-hunt, with people naming names willy nilly -- or being forced to publicly denounce their parents -- just to clear their own.
THE POLITICS BEHIND WITCH-HUNTING
McCarthy was encouraged by Republicans in the 1950s to rampage around looking for supposed Communists -- and bullying everyone in his path -- because it would reap the party political advantage in the post-World War II Cold War hysteria. Republicans today encourage, or at least acquiesce to, the Bush Administration's incompetent rampaging in search of "terrorist" suspects, shredding badly the protections of the Constitution, because it serves their electoral advantage in a society frightened by the prospect of future terrorist attacks.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" -- which, in a brilliant stroke, stars Joseph McCarthy as himself (from newscasts of the time) -- is not a consistently great movie. It barely captures the social sweep and damage done by McCarthyism outside the CBS newsroom, and in its desire to glorify the courageous work of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (played brilliantly by David Straithairn) and his colleague Fred Friendly (Clooney), it overlooks that fact that others more courageous took on McCarthy long before they did. But, despite its flaws, it's a riveting and socially important film, one we need to ruminate upon for its messages for our own time and situation -- lest we continue to repeat bad history.#
Bernard Weiner for nearly two decades reviewed movies and plays for the San Francisco Chronicle. A Ph.D. in government & international relations, he has taught at various universities and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org). To comment, write >> crisispapers@comcast.net <<.
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