And that is exactly why we have to prevent them from gaining power in 2006.
PLEASE AVOID THIS MOVIE!!!
Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) hosted a Hill screening of the new George Clooney film “Good Night. And, Good Luck.” Tuesday night for members and staff.
Hinchey founded the Future of American Media Caucus earlier this year to challenge the media and the Bush administration’s use of it.
He said the film, which highlights Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 battle with Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.), dovetailed with the caucus’s mission because it concerns a time “when a member of the U.S. Senate sought to use fear. That’s not the first time or the last time a politician has used fear to advance his agenda.”
“We’ve been fighting the use of the media as a propaganda tool by the Bush administration,” he added.
Democrats on hand — Reps. Diane Watson (Calif.), Bill Pascrell (N.J.), Bob Etheridge (N.C.), and Jim McDermott (Wash.) among them — mostly raved about the black-and-white, documentary-style film.
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) called the use of archival footage of McCarthy “a masterstroke.”
Hinchey said the Center for American Progress had sponsored another screening and put the caucus in touch with the studio, Warner Independent Pictures, which had already been interested in doing a Hill event.
And even though the film is already showing this week at the Landmark E Street Cinema, the studio was still very careful that it didn’t get into the wrong hands. Warner flew a staffer out from California yesterday with the disc. She flew back with it yesterday.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) has been in the spirit as well. On the House floor Tuesday, Emanuel ran through some of the day’s top news stores, from inflation to benefit cuts at General Motors to deaths in Iraq. He concluded by signing off, “In the spirit of Edward R. Murrow, ‘Good day, and good luck.’”