By George.

I had to write to let you know what a great interview you did with George Clooney ["Clooney vs. the Far Right," December 6]. On my list of things to do was to go see Good Night, and Good Luck. I am glad that I put it off until after I received the December 6 Advocate. It made a great movie even better.

I grew up with Edward R. Murrow as my news hero, watched a lot of the Army-McCarthy hearings, and was fortunate enough to have spent an evening of conversation with Joe Welch while he was involved in the hearings, so the movie brought back a lot of memories. The film was so real and involving that I actually walked out of the theater and smelled my clothing to make sure it didn't smell of cigarette smoke!

It is an extremely timely movie with a theme that is very relevant today. One can only hope that a few of our representatives in Washington who have blinders on will take them off long enough to view Good Night, and Good Luck and that it will hit a nerve.

DAVID DINGMAN Concord, N.H.

As a conservative gay man in George Clooney's home state, I admire him for not finding it necessary to knock George W. Bush and call him endless names like most of his Hollywood liberal friends. On the other hand, his remark "Without the liberal view ... blacks would be sitting at the back of the bus ... and McCarthy'd be in power" is flawed. A Republican was serving as president when blacks [gained] equal rights status, and I seriously doubt if McCarthy would still be in power, since he would be 97 years old. Finally, Clooney said he finds himself turning off the TV and going, "Ugh, don't do it, don't jump," when his actor friends try and preach to win a moral argument. My reaction to such shenanigans is to laugh at those idiots making fools of themselves, discussing things in which their knowledge is lacking, to say the least.

CHUCK CASSON via the Internet

I'm surprised at what I consider quite an omission on the part of The Advocate when it comes to Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn back in the 1950s ["McCarthy's Boys," December 6]. Do a Google search for Joseph McCarthy, and the first site that comes up is www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthy.htm. On that page it states the following:

"Although [his homosexual activities were] well-known by political journalists, the first article about it did not appear until Hank Greenspun published an article in the Las Vegas Sun on 25 October 1952. Greenspun wrote that: 'It is common talk among homosexuals in Milwaukee who rendezvous in the White Horse Inn that Senator Joe McCarthy has often engaged in homosexual activities.'

"McCarthy considered a libel suit against Greenspun but decided against it when he was told by his lawyers that if the case went ahead he would have to take the witness stand and answer questions about his sexuality. In an attempt to stop the rumours circulating, McCarthy married his secretary, Jeannie Kerr. Later the couple adopted a five-week-old girl from the New York Foundling Home."

That McCarthy himself was probably gay makes his acts even more dishonest and despicable.

SCOTT OHLMAN Caledonia, Wis.