1. On Friday, George Clooney was given an honorary award at the César Awards, which are basically the Oscars of France.
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2. And during his speech, Clooney spoke out about Donald Trump, though not by name, through the words of Edward R. Murrow.
Clooney directed and appeared in the 2005 historical drama Good Night and Good Luck about Murrow’s journalistic efforts to discredit Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts in the 1950s.
3. “I was thinking about Edward R. Murrow as we find ourselves nostalgic for when America was great and when the news wasn’t fake. Maybe his words some 60 years ago can help put things in perspective.”
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4. “’We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must not walk in fear, one of another. We must not be driven by fear into an age of unreason. If we dig deep in our history and … remember that we are not descendants from fearful people.’”
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Clooney noticeably used the inclusive term people instead of men, as Murrow originally said.
5. “’We proclaim ourselves, 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.’”
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6. “’The actions of this president have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it — and rather successfully.’”
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Clooney replaced “the junior Senator from Wisconsin,” Murrow’s reference to McCarthy, with “this president,” his own reference to Trump.
7. “’Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.”’”
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