George Clooney's Broadway Epic "Good Night & Good Luck" Aired Live on National TV

[Clark Kimble]

Wow....sensationally staged dramatization, with a staggering final two-minute video montage, of the 1954 battles between Sen. Joseph McCarthy's HUAC vs. CBS and Edward R. Murrow, aired live on CNN Saturday evening from the Winter Garden on Broadway, with an informative post-show panel discussion including journalists Bret Stephens; Anderson Cooper; Kara Swisher; Connie Chung; Scott Pelley; Murrow acolyte Marvin Kalb; Abby Phillip; and Walter Isaacson.

Clooney closed the stage show by asking, "What are YOU going to do?" while slowly making eye contact with hundreds in the live audience.

The through line connecting 1954 with 2025 is unmistakable. To quote Peter Allen, "No need to remember when, 'cause everything old is new again."

The show concludes its Broadway run Sunday.

[BarkCampbell]

No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

[MikoTython]

No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

Better the corrupt leading the blind leading the blind, eh ? Now, I'm not putting modern journalism on any kind of a pedestal, because 'access journalism' & partisanship seems to be the coin of the realm of the 'mainstream', but SOME kind of oversight is better than none. That said, there are a lot of small independent outfits - bellingcat, ProPublica, The Center For Public Integrity (CPI), among others - doing their bit.

McCarthy was, indeed, a fraud, and Edward R. Murrow was, indeed, a first-rate journalist. What fault adheres to George Clooney for dramatizing Murrow's speaking truth to power you'd have to explain - probably the stink of his liberal political affiliation, would be my guess. Which is imo utterly irrelevant, other than the entirely laudable impulse to inspire our institutions to stand up against fraud & corruption - what a concept. Don't think I have to draw a picture for where the present situation stands, re: corruption.

[BarkCampbell]

No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

Better the corrupt leading the blind leading the blind, eh ? Now, I'm not putting modern journalism on any kind of a pedestal, because 'access journalism' & partisanship seems to be the coin of the realm of the 'mainstream', but SOME kind of oversight is better than none. That said, there are a lot of small independent outfits - bellingcat, ProPublica, The Center For Public Integrity (CPI), among others - doing their bit.

McCarthy was, indeed, a fraud, and Edward R. Murrow was, indeed, a first-rate journalist. What fault adheres to George Clooney for dramatizing Murrow's speaking truth to power you'd have to explain - probably the stink of his liberal political affiliation, would be my guess. Which is imo utterly irrelevant, other than the entirely laudable impulse to inspire our institutions to stand up against fraud & corruption - what a concept. Don't think I have to draw a picture for where the present situation stands, re: corruption.

ProPublica is neither independent nor partisanship-free. No matter how loudly they proclaim they are, a simple check of where their money comes from reveals who's behind the curtain. They've run 3 major stories run afoul of journalistic integrity 101 in the past 2 years alone.

The closest person to Murrow these days has been Matt Taibbi. He spent his years the darling of the aughts Rolling Stone-reading progressive intellectuals with his hard-hitting reporting on W and TWOT. Fast forward to when he discovered the team he usually voted for was now guilty of conspiring to domestically censor free speech, and fostering abroad (through USAID) the "good news." He testified before congress the extent for which journalism centers across the country and world were, sadly, not in the business of "standing up to fraud and corruption" anymore, but in the business of "manufacturing a consensus machine." ProPublica and CPI are in that boat.

So when Clooney makes eye contact and implores us to do more. He really means he wants you to not peek behind the curtain and swallow what he and his buddies in power force feed you.

[MikoTython]

No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

Better the corrupt leading the blind leading the blind, eh ? Now, I'm not putting modern journalism on any kind of a pedestal, because 'access journalism' & partisanship seems to be the coin of the realm of the 'mainstream', but SOME kind of oversight is better than none. That said, there are a lot of small independent outfits - bellingcat, ProPublica, The Center For Public Integrity (CPI), among others - doing their bit.

McCarthy was, indeed, a fraud, and Edward R. Murrow was, indeed, a first-rate journalist. What fault adheres to George Clooney for dramatizing Murrow's speaking truth to power you'd have to explain - probably the stink of his liberal political affiliation, would be my guess. Which is imo utterly irrelevant, other than the entirely laudable impulse to inspire our institutions to stand up against fraud & corruption - what a concept. Don't think I have to draw a picture for where the present situation stands, re: corruption.

ProPublica is neither independent nor partisanship-free. No matter how loudly they proclaim they are, a simple check of where their money comes from reveals who's behind the curtain. They've run 3 major stories run afoul of journalistic integrity 101 in the past 2 years alone.

The closest person to Murrow these days has been Matt Taibbi. He spent his years the darling of the aughts Rolling Stone-reading progressive intellectuals with his hard-hitting reporting on W and TWOT. Fast forward to when he discovered the team he usually voted for was now guilty of conspiring to domestically censor free speech, and fostering abroad (through USAID) the "good news." He testified before congress the extent for which journalism centers across the country and world were, sadly, not in the business of "standing up to fraud and corruption" anymore, but in the business of "manufacturing a consensus machine." ProPublica and CPI are in that boat.

So when Clooney makes eye contact and implores us to do more. He really means he wants you to not peek behind the curtain and swallow what he and his buddies in power force feed you.

What's wrong with this ?

https://journalistsresource.org/media/t ... ey-did-it/

[acewater11]

Clooney = Pompous and Pretentious.
Challenge. Name 3 great Clooney performances.

[George Zipp]

Clooney = Pompous and Pretentious.
Challenge. Name 3 great Clooney performances.

The idea of "great" is beyond subjective in this conversation. There is also a strong chance that his politics, which I don't want to discuss because I don't to draw the mods over here, influence your opinion of his work.

I personally don't think anything Clooney has ever done is great per se. He has entertained me in many roles: Ocean's 11, From Dusk Til Dawn, Up in the Air (might just be the STL filming but still), The Perfect Storm, Out of Sight, ER (yes, ER), and the Descendants come to mind. He's also been in plenty of (bleep) and drivel. Gravity immediately comes to mind.

I'm going to watch Good Night and Good luck this evening bc my wife recorded it while we were out of town this weekend. I don't have huge expectations but I'll give it a spin.

[todd-parker]

Clooney = Pompous and Pretentious.
Challenge. Name 3 great Clooney performances.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Syriana
Michael Clayton
Three Kings
The American
Burn After Reading

[George Zipp]

Finally watched this last night. I know the story and I saw the movie.

Gotta say not a fan of trying to watch a Broadway play on TV. I fell asleep more than once. And this is coming from someone who goes to shows when we go to NYC. IMO just doesn't translate very well to the small screen. I did like how elaborate and seamless the set was. Best part of it for me.

Was also very bothered by the prosthetic creases in Clooney's forehead.

[Pink Freud]

Name 3 great Clooney performances.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Syriana
Michael Clayton
Three Kings
The American
Burn After Reading
[/quote]

I would add "Monuments Men", which told me a true story I'd never been aware of. Bonus: At the very end, the modern-day professor, ostensibly a much older George Clooney, was actually his father Nick, a longtime Cincinnati local TV news anchor and the longtime host (with Bob Dornan) of intros to films on the once-great American Movie Classics, way back in the day before AMC became "Another Mother... Commercial!!".