Rhetorical Analysis Of Edward R. Murrow

The late 1940s and 1950s in America mark the start of the cold war. This time period was filled with Paranoia, proxy wars, and internal political strife via the second red scare. This internal conflict was exacerbated by the rise of McCarthyism and those who opposed senator Joseph McCarthy. One of the major players opposing McCarthy was Edward R. Murrow, a radio news broadcaster. Murrow is well known for his political speeches and one such speech, “Good Night, and Good Luck”, focuses on the political actions of McCarthy. Within this speech, Edward R. Murrow’s argument that Americans are allowing Joseph McCarthy to exploit their fear of communism and oppress their freedom of speech is valid because he appeals to the American’s sense of patriotism

While many may find Edward R. Murrow’s stance on America's departure from its democratic roots to be weak, they fail to consider that Murrow was not lobbying for those with a specific political stance to speak out but for anyone to speak out and be their own mouthpiece. This is seen when Murrow states, “remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend,”. Murrow examines the American people's origins and the reasons for which the founding fathers fought to free America, the right to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. Later he states, “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,”. By stating that

Murrow’s critics mischaracterized his stance on the American people's voices being silenced and America's departure from democracy; they clearly failed to appreciate the fact that Murrow does not blame the conformity McCarthy was imposing on the American people via his political actions as the cause of America's departure from democracy. This is seen when Murrow states, “There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.”. He later goes on to say, “he [McCarthy] didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it,”. Murrow referencing how citizens of America have a duty to speak their will and that this duty cannot be ignored while democracy is being maintained magnifies the issue of American people being scared to speak out for fear of being un-American. Murrow's later questioning of who is actually at fault for America being manipulated delves into the question of if not McCarthy manipulating the American people then would someone else have. By being fearful of Communism and being seen as un-American, Americans were allowing themselves to be manipulated by McCarthy. Their own fear was taking away their freedom of speech, and without freedom of speech, there is a separation from democracy, which is based on the concept of government serving the will of the people. Without a voice, there is no will of the people, and without the will of the people, there is no