It's time to watch "Good Night, and Good Luck": How George Clooney tried to warn us all Maureen Lee LenkerSeptember 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM 0 Warner Independent Pictures/ Everett; CBS via Getty David Straithairn as Edward R. Murrow and the real Edward R. Murrow Good night, and good luck.
- - It's time to watch "Good Night, and Good Luck": How George Clooney tried to warn us all
Maureen Lee LenkerSeptember 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
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Warner Independent Pictures/ Everett; CBS via Getty
David Straithairn as Edward R. Murrow and the real Edward R. Murrow
Good night, and good luck.
Journalist Edward R. Murrow's signature sign-off feels like a foreboding warning nowadays. Because at this point, luck might be the only thing that can save us.
On Wednesday, ABC pulled late night host Jimmy Kimmel and his show from the air "indefinitely" in response to comments Kimmel made on his broadcast about Tyler Robinson, the suspected killer of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. Remarks that were an observation, one echoed by law enforcement, that the shooter was a supporter of the MAGA movement — and that Republicans have been quick to try to distance themselves from that particular detail.
Kimmel's suspension marks a chilling moment in American history. One only made worse by the fact that we've been here before. Unless you're a journalist or a history buff, there's a fair chance that if you're Gen X or younger, you are not fully familiar with Murrow's legacy — despite George Clooney's best efforts.
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Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'
Clooney, the son of a career newsman himself, has worked tirelessly to convey the gravity and valor of Murrow's legacy. First, with 2005's Good Night, and Good Luck starring David Strathairn as Murrow, and again this past spring with a Broadway adaptation of the film starring Clooney in the title role. Indeed, the message of the show and the history it relates, were deemed so crucial that CNN even broadcast a historic live stream of the stage performance.
Clooney understands that without people like Murrow, Sen. Joseph McCarthy might have won. McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin as Murrow always referred to him, was one of the architects of the Red Scare that upended American culture and politics from the mid-1940s to 1950s. McCarthy and his cronies engineered a hysteria over left-wing ideologies and their sympathizers, encouraging tactics like loyalty oaths and provoking paranoia over a suggestion that communist spies were omnipresent in America.
McCarthy led the House of Un-American Activities Committee, which conducted so-called "character investigations" of suspected communist sympathizers. HUAC had a particular interest in targeting the entertainment industry, making examples of high-profile writers, actors, and directors — and blacklisting any who refused to cooperate with their interrogations.
The decade over which this occurred is widely regarded as a black mark in American and Hollywood history. It is commonly regarded as a witch hunt. Indeed, playwright Arthur Miller literalized the metaphor with his play The Crucible, using the Salem witch trials as a parable for HUAC and the Hollywood blacklist.
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Edward R. Murrow
Few, including many of the most powerful men in Hollywood, had the courage to stand up to McCarthy — except for Murrow. With producer Fred Friendly, he regularly criticized the Red Scare and McCarthy on CBS program See It Now. In March 1954, they dedicated an entire episode of the broadcast to "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," predominantly using the senator's own quotes to criticize McCarthy. The broadcast is widely regarded as the deciding factor in McCarthy's downfall.
In the 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, Clooney dramatizes all of this. Using the shadows and atmosphere of black-and-white filmmaking, Clooney made his directorial debut with an ode to Murrow and his colleagues' courage, taking viewers behind the scenes to understand the insidiousness of McCarthy's actions and tactics, as well as the enormity of what was at stake for Murrow and his staff in standing up to the senator.
The Hollywood Blacklist ruined lives, with many losing their livelihoods or even committing suicide in response to the fallout from HUAC. Good Night, and Good Luck lays that out in black and white. Literally.
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George Clooney in 2005's 'Good Night, and Good Luck.'
At the time, Clooney intended the film as not just a tribute to Murrow, but also as a rebuttal to the post-9/11 political landscape. Reviving the story for Broadway in 2025, Clooney even more intentionally sought to speak truth to power and warn against the perils of fascism, state censorship, and any threat to free speech (and a free press). It feels almost obtuse to call Clooney prescient.
While the 2005 film is likely easier to locate than the CNN broadcast, either version of Good Night, and Good Luck is essential viewing in the midst of what seems to be a new horizon for neo-McCarthyism in America. "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," Murrow famously said. Many Americans would do well to heed those words.
Kimmel's remarks could hardly be seen as dissent so much as commenting on fact. "The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it," Kimmel said on his Monday night broadcast. "In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving."
It was this statement that led FCC Chair Brendan Carr to call Kimmel's words "the sickest conduct possible." Carr also threatened to "take action" against Disney and ABC, suggesting that the FCC could revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a means of applying pressure to ABC to take action against the host.
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George Clooney in 'Good Night, and Good Luck.' on Broadway
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.The news that Kimmel's show would be pre-empted indefinitely came abruptly on the heels of Nexstar, an operator of many ABC affiliates, announcing that they would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live for "the foreseeable future." Though perhaps not so abruptly when one considers that Nexstar is currently awaiting the FCC's approval on their proposed acquisition of rival broadcaster TEGNA.
There are many who will not see Kimmel's suspension as a warning sign. Good Night, and Good Luck plainly lays out why it absolutely is and must be taken as such. It's perhaps odd to compare the former host of The Man Show to Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Murrow — but with their actions today, ABC and Carr have drawn that parallel for us. A 20-year old film recounting 70-year old history is somehow the most relevant piece of media we currently have at our disposal.
Perhaps it's best to leave Murrow with the last word: "Our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us….This instrument [television] can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference."
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