"Break Up Up The Yankees"

I was invited to a screening of the Edward R Murrow film, "Goodnight and Good Luck," directed by George Clooney. The screening took place at the Directors Guild Theater, and it brought back memories of my limited network career.

I worked at CBS in the late sixties as a middle-management executive; my job included the selling of CBS News-film and documentaries overseas. This brought me into contact with the "news guys" on a regular basis. I found that although they were almost all a bit crazy, they were dedicated to the notion that "Americans needed to know," and it was their responsibility to tell them.

Broadcast networks from the fifties through today operate with a conundrum: the federal government grants them a license to operate their stations, but if you annoy the Feds enough they will take away your license, or reduce its value in some way. This is unreasonable, but it is the way things are.

When the networks annoyed the Nixon administration with their criticism of the war in Vietnam, the President (I believe) had his FCC implement the Prime Time Access and Financial Interest and Syndication rules to punish the Networks and send a not-too-subtle message that if they were to keep up the criticism, more cut-backs would follow.

Broadcast networks are designed to make money - as much as possible. This creates another problem for them.

Seeing Murrow, Friendly, and Paley in a well-choreographed battle with one another was of particular interest to the DGA audience. CBS at that time was "a one-trick pony," as most of its revenue came from their radio and television interests. It's hard to imagine the pressures on Paley with an out-of-control senator uncovering communists wherever he chose to find them. Advertisers were also under enormous pressure from same source.

It is now 50 years later: CBS is now Viacom, ABC is now The Walt Disney Company and NBC is now General Electric. None of these Corporate Giants will dare to "take on" the government. If Murrow lived today he would be a "blogger" as no broadcaster would go near him.

If asked for a solution I would be hard pressed to come up with one other then the old standby "BREAK UP THE YANKEES", and diversify the control of broadcast and other television delivery systems.

Even though I am a liberal Democrat, it is not easy for me to blame the Republicans or President Bush. (Imagine how difficult it is for me to say this). It is a function of money and power brought to bear by lobbyists for the media companies. I am sure that sex also enters into the equation, but I am hard pressed to figure out exactly how.

In 2050 I will be long gone, yet I wonder what writer, producer, or director will be able to look back on the war in Iraq and portray an early 21st century Murrow. Which network and which reporter has stood up to the administration and shouted, "What the hell is going on here?"

Incidentally, it appeared that of the 573 people in attendance, 572 people adored the film and one didn't like it at all, and that was me, but I will save my critique of the film for another time, as I know that 572 people can't be wrong about this while I alone could be right.

Norman Horowitz

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