Tales Of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT

These are mysterious times in American politics. Context is uncertain. Assorted views, including my own, see ways that newscasts could be more helpful. As generations pass, the manner of “news” on the airwaves has changed more than many may know and others have largely forgotten.

This last month, a new play on this timely topic opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. The play’s very title — “Good Night, and Good Luck” — has a proud history. In 2005, the five words were the title of a movie that preceded the play. In the 1950’s, the five words were a frequent sign-off for Edward R. Murrow’s popular TV newscast, “See It Now”. Murrow first used the same sign-off for many of his radio broadcasts from Europe during WWII.

Both the film and the play were co-written by Hollywood star George Clooney. I saw the 2005 film, which I admired. The 2025 play has a promising start with critical acclaim and record ticket sales.  

The plot(s) of both focus on the despotic Senator Joseph McCarthy, who in the late 1940s and early ’50s binged on conjuring up hordes of communists in America. The movie and play spotlight the skill and detailed work of newsman Murrow (played by Clooney) as a potent contrast to McCarthy’s views and personal conduct. 

The play has gained minor notice on political talk shows, which have largely displaced major newscasts since the dawn of social media. The media time now given daily to cheerleading and political campaigns are but thin gruel for our democratic republic. In its day, news was a mainstay.

The play will rouse some folks to bring up the similarities between McCarthy’s notorious blacklists of workers in certain fields and today’s suddenly politicized threats to jobs. Other observers may see the lack of “Murrow” types in corporate media today, in a position to compile a cogent report of free-ranging threats. Still others may tie together the two: the harm of blacklists, worsened by the shortfall of silverback journalists in TV who fostered high standards of reporting in an earlier era.

My claim about “high standards of reporting in an earlier era” is no idle catch line. My research for writing this column stumbled across earnest views from newsmen of an earlier era. Jim Lehrer co-founded the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” in the decades after Murrow’s “See It Now”.

See how far Lehrer’s own journalist’s Code of Ethics differed from the common styles of today’s “news” shows. The changes from then till now are staggering. It’s a wonder that politicking has grown no worse than it has. Take a moment on Lehrer’s ten rules for weighty reporting:

• Do nothing I cannot defend.
• Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
• Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
• Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
• Assume personal lives are a private matter, until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
• Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
• Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes, except on rare and monumental occasions.
• No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
• And, finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

The drama of news history can teach. With luck, the Broadway play, “Good Night, and Good Luck”, will spark a rare debate about the path of the news media as much as it spurs comments about noted government officials. Times are ripe for watching Murrow forewarns TV. 

Those cardinal ethics could serve us better again.