Of speeches, broadcasting and heros ...

Broadcast journalism became an interesting topic after I saw George Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck". In his second motion picture as a director, Mr. Clooney highlights the importance of journalism and broadcast media in educating the public, epecially in times when fear and confusion are used to herd the masses.

Today, we live in a time when fear is used to shape our policies and instead of presenting the various dimensions to these real-life issues, broadcast journalism has turned into pedestrian entertainment with 'instant' satellite videos and 'on-the-scene' live-reports. Ofcourse these are precisely choreographed to create rather than to report the news.

It is precisely what Ed Murrow, the protagonist in Good Night and Good Luck, so passionately talked and warned about in his 1958 speech at the RTNDA Convention speech in Chicago, here is a quote from that speech:

"...We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late"

Too late! Today's televison programming in general, PBS being an outstanding exception, mocks our intelligence and has become a commercialized vehicle for shamelessly propagating brand names & phoney icons. Mr. Murrows words from that speech, it appears, have had little impact on today's programming.

In anycase, I was captivated by the movie, Mr. Murrow's mettle and this speech ...listen to the way he delivers it, listen to words and for context use today's media. About 50 years since the speech ...has the world of broadcast journalism gone to the dogs? Are we less informed or mis-informed ? How do we change our programming so that it inspires us everyday to grow ?

I started out by turning off my cable subscription and switching to a PBS diet.

Here is the video: video clip of the conference speech
David Strathairn delivers a captivating performance as Ed Murrow in this segment as he does in the rest of the film.


[1] Ed Murrow - Wikipedia

[2] Good Night And Good Luck - YouTube clip