BAGnewsNotes: The Reach Of Compassion

"Ironically, if there is such a thing in this tragedy, George Clooney, who's father was a TV news anchor, was in Venice, Italy to promote his new film about Edward R. Murrow vs. Senator Joe McCarthy (United States politician who unscrupulously accused many citizens of being Communists (1908-1957)) and he and Spike Lee spoke out against the TV news media that has become entertainment oriented rather than providing information for the public to think about. I remember finding an itsy-tiny article in the NY Times back in the 1980's about the Senator's motivation over a medal he thought he was entitled to from WWII, never given. I've seen some of that news history that has fought from the sidelines, a cousin George Murray, a film editor (film at eleven then rush developed, delivered by motorcycle I read) asked to sit in to direct "Huntley and Brinkley" went on to produce "NBC News from NY" and then CBS coverage of the duopoly's conventions. He passed away in Mexico, his wife introduced Avon products there. Edwin Newman read, at his eulogy in the UN Chapel, a letter to an investigative crew in Vietnam working on a common soldiers view of the conflict there, sorrily informing them that their months of work had been cancelled by "higher-ups". Strictly speaking, I wasn't at the eulogy. He had been an Army Captain in the Korean Conflict, then in the Signal Corps creating training films, then an award-winning producer, one "Vanishing Americans" about native Americans, I've been told. Once myself in New Orleans during a hurricane in the "last" oil embargo, it is very disheartening to see, where once I drove back and forth from Columbus, Mississippi, the region in tatters, from the reports I've heard from archaeologists who work in preservation.