Goodnight, and Good Luck

 The movie "Goodbye, and Good Luck" was written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov and stars David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr, Frank Langella, Tate Donovan, and Ray Wise (IMDB).

This movie takes place in the 1950's during the time of Communism and the paranoia it caused in the United States. The person who was exploiting those fears was the senator of Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. One CBS reporter named Edward Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly make it their mission to take a stand and expose Senator McCarthy.

When in the newsroom, trying to decide on a piece for their next show, someone mentions an air force officer who was dismissed because his father was claimed to be a communist. At his trial, all of the evidence and his charges were in a sealed envelope that no one saw. The officer's rights to a fair trial were violated because he did not know the charges against him and was still found guilty. When they reported this story, they were met with a lot of backlash (GS).

The crew then decides to make a direct attack on McCarthy. They decide to run a story on a senate hearing on a woman who supposedly works in the pentagon and is a communist spy. However, there were many things wrong with this hearing. The woman did not work in the pentagon and denies communist ties, McCarthy leaves the hearing after a couple questions, and they got her name from a communist mailing list but there are three other people with her name in the phone book. When they bring these things up they offer McCarthy the chance at a rebuttal. 

McCarthy takes them up on their offer and uses his time to accuse the reporter of having ties to the communist party. Of course, all of these accusations are false. The senate decides to launch an investigation on McCarthy.

This movie was made to show that as journalists it is their job to keep the public informed of what is truly going on in the world, no matter how bad. 

The History Of Muckrakers

     A muckraker is defined as, "a person who searches for and tries to expose real or alleged corruption, scandal, or other wrongdoings, especially in politics" (Dictionary). 

    Muckrakers were investigative reporters, journalists, and photographers who wrote about injustice and corruption in the Progressive era, which is between 1890 and 1920. This era was a time of intense social and political reform that aimed to make progress towards a better society. 

    A muckraker was any group of American writers that identified with pre-World War 1 exposé writing and reform. They exposed corruption and injustice in big businesses and the government. Their main goal was to, "raise awareness of social injustices, inequality, corruption, and the abuse of political power in order to bring about reform" (Alchin).  Muckrakers provided accurate and detailed journalistic accounts of economic and political deceit and social hardships caused by substantial businesses in a rapidly industrializing country. 

  President Theodore Roosevelt was not a fan of muckrakers, because he thought they took things too far,  and coined the term himself in his 1906 speech entitled "The Man With the Muckrake." In this speech, he compared these reporters to a specific passage in John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" that highlights a man who raked muck for a living instead of looking towards heaven. Muck is defined as dirt, manure, soil, etc (Howard).

    Some of the first people to be considered muckrakers were Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell (IHA). In 1902 Lincoln Steffens published an article in Mcclure's magazine called, "Tweed days in St. Louis." In this paper he exposes the fact that city officials worked with big corporations in order to maintain power while corrupting the treasury.  He did not stop there, he later released a book with a collection of his articles called "The Shame of the Cities" (IHA).  This collection caused a public exclamation that demanded reform to the city government and allowed progressive ideas to take hold. 

Portrait of Lincoln Steffens

    Shortly after Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell wrote her 19-part McClure's series called, "History of the Standard Oil Company" (IHA).  In this paper she outlined John Rockefeller's rise to power and his business practices. At this time he had a monopoly in oil which she effectively broke up by releasing damaging internal documents. It is believed that her motives were somewhat personal, since her father and dozens of other small oil producers were driven out of business because of Rockefeller (King). 

    One honorable mention is a muckraker by the name of Upton Sinclair. Sinclair was a socialist and wanted to bring the effects of capitalism on workers in the meatpacking industry to light. He wrote a novel entitled, "the Jungle," which detailed workers sacrificing their nails and fingers by working with acid. Many also caught diseases, lost limbs, and had to work in cramped and cold conditions (IHA). Sinclair also uncovered secrets about the products being sold to the public. Some things he reviled were, rats climbing over the meat and leaving excrement behind, spoiled meat was covered with chemicals in order to hide the smell, and skin, hair, stomach, and ears were ground up and packaged as head cheese. Within months, Congress passed the meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act to combat this issue (IHA). 

Workers Splitting backbones and final inspections 

 

    Muckraker also brought to light the issue of race. Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist that was born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862. In 1892, Wells published a book named, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases" (Getchell).  This  highlighted the systemic oppression of southern African Americans and even some poor caucasians. Later, in 1909 she became one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Getchell). 

Portrait of Ida Wells

     Muckrakers played an important role and changed society in a beneficial way. Without them the world would not be as we know it and many of these injustices would still be going on today. They stood up for what is right and knew that America could and would do better.