About the renowned CBS News anchor Edward R. Murrow's legendary on-air confrontations with red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy that helped bring down the infamous politician in the mid-1950s. The film traces the true story of how Murrow (Strathairn), and his producer, Fred Friendly (Clooney), helped bring an end to the tyranny of the blacklist and the House Un-American Activities Committee' anti-Communist hearings. With the platform provided by his CBS News program "See It Now," Murrow challenged McCarthy on his claims that hundreds of avowed Communists were working covertly as Soviet spies in the U.S. government, among other allegations that at the time had the power to destroy lives and careers.