Love and Fear are powerful tools. Fear is a tool used by terrorists and politicians alike to manipulate the public behavior or to foster stereotypes. Good Night and Good Luck captures in film the dynamics of fear and how social identity theory plays a vital role in how people perceive their world. The decision to shoot this film in black and white adds to the fear and paranoia and is a metaphor for the divisive narrative of “us versus them.” Not unlike what George Bush said after 9/11, “either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists,” the docudrama attempts to depict a period in time during the Cold War when there was a great deal of suspicion around the country regarding who might be a communist. Joseph McCarthy was able to take advantage of this mounting fear. Although it wasn’t against the law to be a communist his fear manipulation charged that there were systematic attempts to overthrow or undermine the current government or political system by people who were within our country. His basic claim was subversion. In this framework, there is a power-political approach to his actions. The role of McCarthyism was a driving force in the mid 1950’s discourse. McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means “the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.” Underscoring the importance of a free press, Edward R. Murrow exposed McCarthyism as millions of Americans watched on the “See It Now” program. McCarthyism sought to foster mass hysteria not unlike other periods in time under other world leaders who were able to use fear as a tool. Adolf Hitler worked people into frenzy to justify the murder of millions of Jews. Jesus Christ, known by all as peaceful but controversial, was brutally nailed to a cross because a few high-ranking officials felt threatened by him. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. sent Japanese Americans to concentration camps. The analogies between McCarthy, who sought to attack liberal freedoms guaranteed under the constitution in the name of fear of communists in the State Department, and the Bush administration’s Patriot Act introduced in the wake of 9/11 are striking. Indeed, the congruence between the consequences of McCarthyism and the current narrative regarding Muslims seems also striking. A so-called “Red Scare” is now substituted by a “Muslim Scare.” A strong honor and shame theme permeates the film in that there is a constant struggle for honorable speech and behavior, reproducing those and then acting out those constructed principles of the group. Anything outside of the idealized norms of socially constructed speech and behavior is shameful. The back and forth between McCarthy and Murrow constituted a challenge-response framework, each trying to cast the other as dishonorable. Both were struggling for the limited good of the American people and a zero-sum game that McCarthy lost.