This movie takes place in the 1950's during the time of Communism and the paranoia it caused in the United States. The person who was exploiting those fears was the senator of Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. One CBS reporter named Edward Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly make it their mission to take a stand and expose Senator McCarthy.
When in the newsroom, trying to decide on a piece for their next show, someone mentions an air force officer who was dismissed because his father was claimed to be a communist. At his trial, all of the evidence and his charges were in a sealed envelope that no one saw. The officer's rights to a fair trial were violated because he did not know the charges against him and was still found guilty. When they reported this story, they were met with a lot of backlash.
The crew then decides to make a direct attack on McCarthy. They decide to run a story on a senate hearing on a woman who supposedly works in the pentagon and is a communist spy. However, there were many things wrong with this hearing. The woman did not work in the pentagon and denies communist ties, McCarthy leaves the hearing after a couple questions, and they got her name from a communist mailing list but there are three other people with her name in the phone book. When they bring these things up they offer McCarthy the chance at a rebuttal.
McCarthy takes them up on their offer and uses his time to accuse the reporter of having ties to the communist party. Of course, all of these accusations are false. Therefore, the Senate decided to launch an investigation on McCarthy.
This movie was made to show that as journalists it is their job to keep the public informed of what is truly going on in the world, no matter how bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment