Good Night, and Good Luck

 Good Night and Good Luck: a Space for Antiwar Voices

In the decade after World War II, the United States continued to carry a strong sense nationalism and unity under the idea of spreading democracy around the world. Or, as some may put, a unity against the spread of communism. These ideas remained at the forefront of American politicians, especially in the 1950s at the start of the Vietnam War. One of the ring-leaders, Senator Joseph McCarthy, inspired a time period of McCarthyism across the United States, and advocated against the threat of Communist spies. 

In Good Night and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney, he sought to track the CNN exposure of McCarthy and his target on citizens who had any slight linkage to the Communist party. McCarthyism is defined by Dictionary.com as "the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence." CNN, in this case, had to make the decision of going against the grain of neutrality to do what some considered to be of support of Communists. 

The theme of trial by media is prominent in the film. CNN addressed this by trying to expose the encroachment on free speech that McCarthyism displayed. As CNN anchors began to develop the idea of their special on McCarthyism, they had to tediously select who would be working on the piece. It was important that anyone who had the slightest of linkage or relationship with someone connected to the Communist party, to ensure they too would be flamed in the media as being a Communist spy, posing the risk of being charged by the Espionage Act. There is a hint of present day "cancel culture" in the sense that one false or misleading piece of information could destroy someone's reputation and career if they were an alleged spy or seen as not loyal to the values of democracy.