Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 6/9/25
Headline: “Doin’ It Live”
Subhead: “A timely televised play won’t save the republic.”
“Fuck it! We’ll do it live! These, of course, are the immortal words of Bill O’Reilly. But George Clooney had a similar thought recently—involving a different former CBS newsman—when he decided to mount a live televised production of Good Night, and Good Luck, a Broadway play that he cowrote, based on a movie that he cowrote, based on Edward R. Murrow’s famous takedown of the demagogue Joseph McCarthy in the fifties. . .”
“Of course, Clooney and CNN were also interested in televising the show because its subject matter is supremely relevant right now, as every journalist covering it dutifully pointed out. The historical echoes ‘are extraordinary,’ even ‘eerie,’ CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, noting the play’s themes of ‘unrestrained political power, corporate timidity and journalistic integrity.’ Clooney told the Times that, “unfortunately, this play always is timely. . .”
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