“No one man can terrorize a nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”
–Edward R. Murrow
So I missed Good Night and Good Luck in the theaters. I'm glad. The whole thing's about television anyway, and its poignancy is especially felt on the small screen.
Television (indeed, all media) can insulate its consumers from reality, but ideally it can be the ultimate educational tool, a boon to society, and not just when the pay-porn channels accidentally unscramble for a weekend.
What if the internet was more of an informative device and less a den of spam, viruses and pedophilia? What if the media harshly criticized Bush and Congress went on to censure him, as they did McCarthy? Taping a shot of the president's puckering face over the television screen at appropriate moments makes this the feel-good film of the second term.
I loved this movie, but it's an investigation of political journalism; of course I like it. This is muckraker porn, pure and simple. Its most beautiful suggestion: Politicians cannot run roughshod over America, if only we have the intestinal fortitude to call them on their misdeeds. And here at the Weekly, we've got intestinal fortitude on tap, with happy hour all day long. Baby.
So go see the movie. Watch Clooney earn his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (which he won for Syriana, but he throws down the skillz here just as well). He also directed and co-wrote GNaGL. “You've got to give it to him,” my friend Robin said approvingly. “That's what I hear from a surprising amount of guys,” I responded. It's true: whenever the “if you had to sleep with a guy,” conversation arises among men, George Clooney's name has turned up surprisingly often of late.
Could it be? George Clooney, the new “guy it's okay to kinda want to fuck if you're a straight guy”?
Is George Clooney the new Elvis?
“This instrument can teach. It can illuminate and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it towards those ends. Otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box.”
-Edward R. Murrow
