Prophecy from Paddy...

[misanthrope]

...Chayefsky, that is.

Why are we in trouble?

The natural order of things

With every passing day, this all becomes more prescient.

Marshall McLuhan, what are you doin'?

[Journeyman]

1. The first and only movie I ever paid twice to see in the theater . . .

Watched it, then went back the next weekend to see it again. I was a journalist at the time. It illuminated much of what was going on and contributed to my leaving the field. Between it and the travesty the press made of Oliver Sipple's life I was convinced I wanted nothing to do with journalism. Events since have borne out and reinforced my disgust and the fears I felt, there in the shadow of Watergate when journalism stood at the brink of meaningfulness or the precipice of irrelevancy. . . just before it stepped off.

[misanthrope]

2. Which means you probably...

...liked this as well:

just lights and wires and a box

[Journeyman]

3. Not so much. . .

For me, the defining moment of that sordid era was not Murrow's commentaries or Welch's queries, but the acts and beliefs espoused six years before, long prior to McCarthy's arrival, when the Hollywood 10 based its defense against HUAC on the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Had the nation paid heed to Ring Lardner & Dalton Trumbo, we would have avoided McCarthyism entirely. As it was, they and 8 others went to prison, paranoia grew on the roots Parnell tended, HUAC grew stronger, and the tide of reactionism swelled, sweeping McCarthy in with ease. And yet it could all have been stemmed before it began, if only . . .

[misanthrope]

4. Actually, I was referring...

...to the movie and what it was trying to tell people with that abridged version of Murrow's speech.

For what it's worth, I agree about the Hollywood 10, but I was thinking of the medium and the way it fuels and extinguishes. Look at the way it has affected this forum for the last two days.