Integrity And Truth In The Public's Best Interests!

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2006)

Gorge Clooney takes the director's chair for his second time and has crafted a well detailed and hauntingly documented look at how Edward R. Murrow took on Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. Murrow is played by David Staithairn ("L.A. Confidential") in what has become his most recognized performance. Filmed entirely in black and white to give the film a feel of authenticity, the movie exhibits how scare tactics and the like were used on American society in such frivolous ways that even reporters ran in fear of McCarthy and his committee hearings. But not Murrowthe man set a standard in integrity that has become bedrock in the journalism industry today to report the truth, which was and is always in the public's best interests. His famous lines, "We will not walk in fear, one of another," and "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home," show that he was a reporter out simply to do what was right. It was not about ratings. It was not about vanity. It was not black and white; it was about right and wrong. That standard of integrity is hard to find these days, even in the news business where sensationalism has crafted the news into 'info-tainment.'