Good Night, and Good Luck

Okay, you want to just lay this down?

Ready when you are.

I'm ready.

Are you recording?

I am now.

This just might do nobody any good.

At the end of this discourse, a few people may accuse

this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest.

And you all may be accused of giving hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts.

It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to speak to you with some candor.

about what is happening in our mass media.

You should know at the outset that I appear here voluntarily, by invitation.

And that these remarks are strictly of a do-it-yourself nature.

If what I have to say is responsible, I alone am responsible for the saying of it.

I've decided to express my concern on the manner in which we inform ourselves.

I am seized by an abiding fear of what these instruments

are doing to our society, our culture, our heritage.

Our history will be what we make of it.

And if any historians 50 to 100 years from now were to look, they would in there find

evidence of decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live.

And surely we will pay a price.

We are currently fat, comfortable, and complacent.

We have a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information.

But unless we get up off our fat assets and recognize that media in the main is

being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then those who

finance it, those who profit from it, those who work at it, and those who

consume it, may see a totally different picture too late.

Good evening.

Earlier tonight, Adlai E.

Stevenson urged the United States to take the initiative in peace talks with the Soviet Union.

The talks are aimed toward worldwide disarmament and assurances of

non-aggression for the Russians as well as for the free world.

In a broadcast from his globe-circling tour, Stevenson warned the Eisenhower

administration against shutting the door on conferences

with the Soviet leaders and putting too much pressure...

I'll be right down.

...on the uncommitted bloc of nations, not linked...

Milli, this is the Annie Lee Moss footage from yesterday.

Okay, I'll give it to Leo.

Wait, it's only two cans?

What? Oh ya, that's all it is, but there's some notes with it that go for Fred.

Fred's in with the guys.

Okay, I'll give the film to Leo.

You can go ahead and give the notes to Fred.

He's in the writer's room.

Ya, thank you, Milli/Palmer.

Hi, Joe.

Shirley, what's going on in here?

Hey, Palmer.

Hello, Palmer.

Uh, making some copies for the... Nothing.

Just making sure.

Two attractive people alone in a copy room.

Ho ho ho'K, Palmer.

I mean, I, ah, certainly won't say anything.

Well, don't tell Fred.

He'll fire me.

Well, I mean, both of us.

Shirley, it's the nepotism rule.

The nepotism rule.

You know, I think Joe would get the ax.

Oh.

Well, uh, rules would make to be broken.

You can afford to say that.

Oh, please.

Actually, Shirley, I think he's right.

What do you say?

You want to, uh, get a drink tonight?

Yeah, you're just a couple of guys trying to help.

The day I need dating advice from you two knuckleheads is, uh...

Ouch.

Let me see this.

I don't know.

It's simply a loyalty oath.

I mean, there's nothing in there about...

To CBS?

To America.

- You promised to be a loyal... - All the reporters have it.

Who are you promising?

Fred signed it.

- CBS, Haley... - And Murrow.

Murrow signed it?

Murrow signed it.

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of these organizations...

I've been at it for a while now.

I just thought this was a joke at first.

...that appeared on the Attorney General's list of subversive groups?

It's a lot of pressure.

I don't know.

All right. Let's think about this.

What is it really saying?

Is it a civil liberties issue?

Is it censorship?

I don't know.

I mean, is it simply stating to CBS that I'm not a communist?

Murrow signed it.

and Fred.

Maybe you should talk to Fred.

Well, I talked to Fred.

He told me to sign it.

If you don't sign it, are you and I a target?

If I don't sign it, they will fire me.

Well, at least then we can tell everyone the truth.

Okay. All right.

Hey, they got the film?

Uh, yeah.

It's all queued up and ready to go.

Oh, uh, Eddie.

You're right.

Went through that DC phone book.

More than one Annie Lee Moss in there, right?

Oh, yeah.

A lot more.

See, I told you.

All right.

Here they are.

Hey, Joe.

We got it queued up.

Okay.

Hey, Fred.

Do you want a cigarette?

No.

I'll just breathe the air.

All right.

Okay.

Sounds good.

All right.

Ready?

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

On this reel, this woman, Annie Lee Moss.

This is the person McCarthy has spent two weeks claiming was a spy in the Pentagon.

Yeah, well, she was a clerk in the communications office.

So, after all this buildup, she finally comes in.

McCarthy only asks her four questions, and he gets up and he leaves.

Wait, wait, wait.

He just left?

Well, he realized he had nothing.

So, uh, Leo, hit it.

I'm sorry.

And, uh, you say you personally did not know Robert Hall.

No, sir.

That you were not there when he came to the house.

That's right.

Uh, do you know what business Robert Hall had with your

husband besides merely delivering the copy of the Daily Work?

No, sir.

I do know.

Uh, I'm afraid I'm going to have to excuse myself.

I've got, uh, a rather important appointment tonight, which I've got to

work on right now, and I wonder if some of the others ...

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

All right, look, and Charlie gets a shot of the empty chair.

Chairman, uh... Right there.

I have no further questions of this witness at this time.

To say that we have the testimony of Mrs. Mosler, the undercover agent of the FBI,

stating that Annie Lee Mosler was a member, a douche-painter of the Communist

Party, uh, the Northeast Public Communist Party... Leo, that's enough.

Turn it off.

Oh, that Roy Cohn's a real charmer.

Ed, Ed, did you see that?

He just walked out.

She is... not a spy.

You don't know that.

Oh, I'll take the odds on it, Fred.

What do you think, Ed?

You haven't made your case.

He's lying.

What's your proof?

I think it's pretty obvious.

Is that our standard now, what you think?

McCarthy told the whole country he found the spy in the Pentagon, and it was her.

Meaning what?

I mean, Ed, does she look like a spy to you?

What does a spy look like, Palmer?

He got up and left his own hearing.

If she's not a spy and you have a story, until then you haven't made your case.

File it.

Okay, fellas, let's save it with the rest of the Senate footage.

Thanks.

Fred, uh, did you guys look at the Secretary Stevens stuff yet?

No, not yet, John.

Not yet.

Just watch it to the end.

Well, John.

All the way to the end.

Thank you, John.

That's what it's worth.

Thanks.

Thanks.

That's pretty good stuff, Ed.

We spent any time in Detroit, Fred.

We got 20 or so of these pieces filed.

There's a story here in the Detroit Free Press.

Dexter, Michigan.

Kid named Milo Radulovic.