This is more than history, as broadcasting is under current pressures to play it safe. The PBS network, for example, is being hounded by Bush appointees to become more conservative in its programming. We’re in a different time, but fear is an emotion not confined to a particular decade.

Clooney has done a remarkably fine job of capturing the tension and tone of the period, from individual apprehension to the ambience of the CBS studio, where virtually everyone puffed on cigarettes and worried about the threat of what the big boss might decree. In retrospect, the bravery of the Murrow operation might seem like a small thing, but given the context of the time, running a show hostile to McCarthy took guts. Actual clips of McCarthy as inquisitor with Roy Cohen as his lackey burnish the film with authenticity.

David Strathairn, in a major acting accomplishment, gives a convincing portrait of Murrow as reserved, somewhat uptight and speaking with solemnity, and above all, as the dedicated journalist who did the Person-to-Person celebrity interview shows as a means of getting his way with more serious matters. He represented an era of broadcast journalism long since interred in the movement toward entwining news with entertainment and stripping personnel as a result of greater consideration of the bottom line.

Clooney also stars in the film as Friendly and captures the reputation of the man as a stalwart supporter of the tradition of quality and independence, as well as loyalty to Murrow. The screenplay, co-credited to Clooney and Grant Heslov, hews to focusing on the issues involved and wisely gets involved in a minimum of personal stuff. This isn’t a drama about personal lives, but about network broadcasting as it then existed, although there is required attention to the fate of individuals where meaningful.

Realistic supporting performances include those of Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey, Jr. as Shirley and Joseph Wershba, trying to keep their marriage secret because it was against CBS policy for husband and wife to be both working there; Jeff Daniels as executive Sigfried Mickelson; Frank Langella as CBS boss William Paley; Ray Wise as the tragically victimized Don Hollenbeck, and screenwriter Heslov as Don Hewitt. Singer Dianne Reeves provides moody jazz as a thread of accompaniment.