By Fr. Robert J. Carr
Catholic Online

Coming from a newspaper family, I grew up respecting the role of journalist. Back then in my childhood and adolescence I watched my Father, Robert B. Carr, work his damnest to find and report the truth. He wrote for the Boston Globe. He had an excellent work ethic, a sense of integrity and he was Catholic. My Father could have best been described as this classic liberal. He would be in the vein of the Harry Truman liberal, as opposed to the Kennedy-Clinton liberal of today. (Yes, I am fully aware that Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and her husband represent two sides opposing sides of a bizarre coin on the fringe of political thought.)

Back then reporters had integrity. They had passion and they understood the poor and the marginalized. My Father covered busing in Boston and had to bring a plexiglass shield with him to work. He needed it to fend off the rocks thrown at him by the South Boston protesters and others. Back then protesters used the rosary to mock the then Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Humbert Medeiros who called for a gospel based charity in the unrest. I worked at the Globe as a janitor and a security guard from 1976-1978. I remember sitting in the guard house on Dorchester's Morrisey Boulevard with the CB radio the security crew used to contact each other. Located between the two warring factions of the city of South Boston and Roxbury, I heard the calls from one waring faction to the other over the CB radio, "Breaker One-Nine for the niggers". How much my Father spoke angrily that people could be treated so poorly because of the color of their skin.

News was important then and news reporters had integrity and passion. Of course, that was at the tail end of an era. The downslide began in the 1960's. CBS' Dick Salant formally announced it in 1986 when he reported to the news staff that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that CBS made a profit on its news division. The bad news was that CBS made a profit on its news division. He knew that news would lose its integrity. That has clearly happened.

I speak as one who was recently lied to by a Boston Globe reporter. He, obviously, did not take the time to figure out who I am before he came to our door at the rectory. After all, I am sure in his mind, I was nothing more than some stupid priest. He came to write a story on the closing of our parish school. He said he was just an education reporter doing a story on the history of the school. He lied. He also asked me to have the common courtesy to not paint all Globe reporters with a broad brush. An irony of irony considering the brush the Globe and other news organs used to paint all priests.

This was all in my mind as I sat down to watch Good Night and Good Luck, a great movie about Edward R. Murrow and the See It Now series. It was brought to America weekly by the classic news team at what was then William Paley's Tiffany Network, the Columbia Broadcasting System. Murrow was the model of news integrity and he is portrayed, I suppose quite accurately as one, with his team, who helped bring Senator McCarthy's red scare tactics to an end. It was the beginning of advocacy journalism that stood up for truth. An art that has long disappeared except with Jorge Ramos on Univision, the only remaining TV newsman who could have held a candle to Edward R. Murrow. Ramos only works in Spanish.

Behind Murrow, was Fred Friendly, the CBS News Producer who stood with Murrow as they came together to bring down McCarthy. The Junior Senator from Minnesota who for years had wielded an unjust hatchet. He glorified himself at the expense of the poor and innocent who were terrified that they would be named unjustly as Communists. The Murrow/Friendly et. al team used their roles as journalists to act in nothing but true integrity and courage. They gave others the courage to stand tall and speak out. The movie demonstrates well the influence one man can have when he chooses to stand up for the truth. It also demonstrates well the reality of what happens when people cower when threatened by political foes.

David Straihorn plays Murrow, the hard smoking, war correspondent turned investigative journalist. He more than looks like him. He is him in his dry style and his professional manner. He brings the powerful journalist to life right before us.

George Clooney, who also co-wrote and directs the picture, plays Fred Friendly. The other half of Murrow who, with the on air journalist, brought news into the new era. Clooney plays Friendly in a way that clearly demonstrates the pioneering spirit that he and Murrow embraced. He, as director, films the entire movie in black and white, adding a realism to the story that empowers the film. Finally, his use of Dianne Reeves for jazz interludes are alone reason enough to see the film. ...