BROADCAST BLUES Murrow’s courage resonates in our current moment BY MARY ANN SORRENTINO

I’m not a movie critic, but Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney’s great new film about Edward R. Murrow’s journalistic courage, deserves editorial as well as critical acclaim.

When we decided to trot over to the Avon to see the movie, I invited along some neighbors. They had no idea who Murrow was. By the time they were tuning in to Welcome Back, Kotter and the other similarly inane TV sitcoms of their youth, the legendary broadcast journalist had long since faded from public view. They, therefore, had less excitement and interest in this film than those of us who still remember America’s very dark days (preceding today’s even darker ones.)

Television and radio, as well as this country, are the worse for Murrow’s absence and for how he has no equals in the current press corps. Show me a broadcaster willing to take on the networks and the sponsors to challenge the largely banal status quo, and I’ll show you an unemployed and/or obscure radio or television personality.

Sure, talk radio and television magazines have their liberals, but they are either jocular or inarticulate in their attack, or working in markets too small to make a difference. On the national scene, despite the occasional foray on PBS and NPR — whose funding is now threatened by the vengeful feds — we still "walk in fear of each other."

This is the very thing Murrow, rightfully, said we must never do.

He also had some prophetic words about the future of television, as he saw it in the late 1950s. If substance and courage disappeared, he predicted, television would turn to garbage. Well, they did and it has. Fear Factor and so-called "reality TV." I rest my case.

Our country bears just too close a resemblance to Senator Joe McCarthy’s America of a half-century ago. We have our own latter-day senators threatening to straighten out any citizen, fellow legislator, or jurist who doesn’t fall into the neo-conservative line. Journalists are being strong-armed and sent to prison for refusing to reveal their sources. Government is lying to paralyze the population with fear and to implement its extremist policies at home and abroad. The "Un-American Activities Committee" operates under different labels. The blatant disregard for the Constitution and the Geneva Convention goes unchallenged and even enjoys presidential support.

Within a radius of five miles from the theater where Good Night, and Good Luck is playing, thousands of young people attend high schools, colleges, and universities. Most have no idea who Edward R. Murrow was, and why his courage is so important — now more so than ever.

Maybe the Avon and other venues ought to offer a few free or reduced-price screenings for youngsters (and anyone else) who can’t afford the admission. Doing so would give Murrow’s — and Clooney’s — important message the broadest possible exposure it deserves.