"When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect – but do not believe him. Never put your trust in anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel Laureate, may be wrong... So you must always be skeptical – always think for yourself." --Linus Pauling

10.28.2005

In re: Murrow, McCarthy

In response to Chris, about Edward R. Murrow, McCarthy, etc.:

Murrow's exposing McCarthy's tactics, etc. on national tv didn't pave the way for advocacy journalism. That's been around since almost the instant after Gutenberg got his bright idea. There was tons of the stuff written both in favor of and against abolition, women's rights, the Confederacy, etc.

No, the main difference between broadcast journalism today and in Murrow's time is that back then the networks ran their news departments at a loss. The news was considered a public service if you will.

While Murrow did not believe it was possible for a journalist to be completely objective in all matters, he thought it was always possible to report the news fairly and show all sides of a story. He was scrupulous in this. His See It Now shows are still considered by many as the greatest news programs in tv history, and the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation give out a yearly award "honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism" that bears his name.

Now of course, everything's changed: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, etc. have all realized there's much money to be made in the news; which can only be a detriment to any actual reporting being done. A friend of mine who writes for a news program on a major network once joked on the phone to me that he "had to get back to writing the day's fiction." I laughed at the remark, but in a slightly chilled to the bone kind of way.

In regards to McCarthy, it's not as if Good Night, And Good Luck is the fifth movie in as many years dealing with subject. I think this might be the first done about any of it in my lifetime, which means it's also the first in yours; so you can't be that sick of it.

The McCarthy era was a dark one in American history. The issues at stake then are just as important now, and will remain so for as long as there is an United States. That being the case, it's necessary to bring it up from time to time; to inform the younger generation if no one else.

If you really want to get mad at a subject that has been done to death, can you all stop it with the Jesus nonsense already? Please? It's been two thousand years. Time to face the truth: He's never coming back, and you wouldn't get along with Him if He did (you think there's a generation gap with your folks, try coming to grips with your messiah's couple of millennia gap), and He's never heard of you. Let it go.

Also, Christian rock really sucks. Surely any divinity that encourages such things should be um, avoided.

More later, about other subjects.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This comment pertains to your post some time ago involving a fateful dream and concluding with the epiphany that you must quit your "straight job" --

An interesting character you seem to be Mr. Jack Hollywood, if one chooses to hybrid your online persona with your geographical location, they will find a sense of noir. This post is indeed intriguing, albeit somewhat unbelievable. However, this may be what makes it genuine. As the choir of voices and clichés rant on: reality is, in fact, more times than not, stranger than fiction. Thank you for this post is what I would ultimately like to conclude with. I, as well, seem to be at a cross-roads in my professional endeavors and what shards of wisdom you have presented….

Cheers,

Zachary A Pugh, M.A.
http://maverickpulp.blogspot.com