Good Night, and Good Luck raises these questions without giving explicit answers. Although I think the fact that they raise the questions and show us the early TV journalists as heroes does point in a particular direction.
The issue that is addressed more directly is the role of TV (and other media) in society. Does it have value besides the financial bottom line? Is it only for entertainment, or should it also educate and inform? Does it have a responsibility to be all that it can be, or only to generate as much money as it can for the shareholders? The film begins and ends with Murrow being honored by broadcasters a few years after the events of the bulk of the film. In his address, he chides them for the pattern he sees emerging in broadcasting. News is set aside for game shows. The money was becoming the only way to judge success. It has only become more pronounced since Murrow’s time.
The film certainly wants us to understand entertainment media (including both television and films) as being something that should be about more than entertainment and be judged on more than how much money they make. Clooney is, in a way, chiding his own industry (as Morrow did) for the attention that is paid to money-making fluff over substance.Good Night, and Good Luck is certainly the latter. It not only shows us a bit of our history, it calls us to see that history being replayed in our own day. It articulates a position that asks more for of our media and of ourselves.
1 Tim. 6:10 (Message Bible)
Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.
1 Tim. 6:10 (New Living Translation)
For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
1 Tim. 6:10 (New Revised Standard)
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Covetousness is a very grave sin; indeed, so heinous is it that the Scriptures class it among the very gravest and grossest crimes (Eph 5:3). In Col 3:5 it is “idolatry,” while in 1 Cor 6:10 it is set forth as excluding a man from heaven. Its heinousness, doubtless, is accounted for by its being in a very real sense the root of so many other forms of sin, e.g. departure from the faith (1 Tim 6:9, 10); lying (2 Ki 5:22-25); theft (Josh 7:21); domestic trouble (Prov 15:27); murder (Ezek 22:12); indeed, it leads to “many foolish and hurtful lusts” (1 Tim 6:9).
Covetousness has always been a very serious menace to humankind, whether in the Old Testament or New Testament period. It was one of the first sins that broke out after Israel had entered into the promised land (Achan, Josh 7); and also in the early Christian church immediately after its founding (Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5); hence, so many warnings against it. A careful reading of the Old Testament will reveal the fact that a very great part of the Jewish law—such as its enactments and regulations regarding duties toward the poor, toward servants; concerning gleaning, usury, pledges, gold and silver taken during war—was introduced and intended to counteract the spirit of covetousness.
Hebrews 13:5 (MsgB)
Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,"
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