Good Night, and Good Luck The word “McCarthyism” has entered America’s vocabulary to define the practice to question one’s patriotism while making unsupported accusations of disloyalty without the proper evidence. During the anticommunist crusade that took place throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, the political term became very popular after a Senator from Wisconsin; Joseph R. McCarthy went on an anti-communist witch-hunt. Senator McCarthy made a public accusation that more than 200 communist had infiltrated the U.S. government, “This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the right young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been worst… In my opinion the State Department, which is one of the most important government departments, is thoroughly infested with Communist” (VF, p. 238) Many of the tactics McCarthy used were very questionable and usually with very little to no evidence would be provided. Some of the tactics he used varied from forms of intimidation to the threat of sending people to jail, “McCarthy used the Senate subcommittee he chaired to hold hearings and level wild charges against numerous individuals as well as the Defense Department, Voice of America, and other government agencies.” (GML, p. 732) In the film, “Good Night, and Good Luck” directed by George Clooney, many civil liberties issues were portrayed through McCarthyism. The one man who was brave enough to speak publicly against McCarthy was a well-known broadcast journalist by the name of Edward R. Murrow. He was a newsman on CBS as host of both the talk show “Person to Person” and the “See It Now” series. As the era of McCarthyism started to progress, the issues dealing with loyalty, patriotism and freedom started to rise. Before Edward R. Murrow even says a word in the movie, he is featured looking very serious while smoking a cigarette