Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow, KBE (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow), (April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American journalist, whose radio news broadcasts during World War II were eagerly followed by millions of listeners. Mainstream historians consider him among journalism's greatest figures; Murrow hired a top-flight cadre of war correspondents and was noted for honesty and integrity in delivering the news. A pioneer of television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of TV news reports that countered the Cold War hysteria of the 1950s, and led to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Career at CBS

Murrow joined CBS as director of talks in 1935, and would remain with the network for his entire broadcast journalism career. At that time, CBS did not have a news staff.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1937, Murrow went to London as director of CBS's European operation. His job was to persuade European figures to broadcast over the CBS network, in direct competition with RCA's NBC network. In this role, he recruited journalist William L. Shirer to hold a similar post on the Continent. The two would become the inventors of broadcast journalism.

Related Topics:
RCA - NBC - William L. Shirer

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Radio

During the 1938 Czechoslovakian crisis, Murrow broadcast directly from Prague to the United States via shortwave radio, making history in the process by covering a breaking foreign news story via radio. Murrow and Shirer went on to organize a European News Roundup, which brought together correspondents from various European cities together for a single broadcast. The March 13, 1938 broadcast was considered revolutionary at the time. (The CBS special became the basis for the CBS World News Roundup, which runs each weekday morning and evening on the CBS Radio Network and is broadcasting's oldest news series.)

Related Topics:
1938 - Shortwave - European News Roundup - CBS World News Roundup

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow was sent to London before the outbreak of World War II, while Shirer stayed on the European continent, stationed in Berlin. When war broke out Murrow provided live radio broadcasts from the height of the London Blitz. Those broadcasts, beginning with what became his signature opening "THIS is London", electrified radio audiences as news programming never had before. Previously, war coverage had been mostly provided by newspaper reports, and earlier radio news programs had usually been an announcer reading wireservice reports in a studio.

Related Topics:
London - World War II - London Blitz

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shirer's coverage from Berlin also brought him national acclaim, and a commentator's position with CBS News upon his return in December 1940. Shirer went on to write a best-selling book, Berlin Diary, based upon his experiences.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow achieved the greater celebrity than Shirer as a result of his war reports. He went on to fly on Allied bombing raids in Europe during the war, providing additional reports from the planes as they flew over Europe (but recorded for delayed broadcast). Murrow's skill in improvising vivid verbal descriptions of visual images, based in part on his college degree in speech, aided the effectiveness of his radio broadcasts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow also took advantage of hostilities to expand the CBS news staff beyond himself and Shirer. The result was a group of reporters acclaimed for their intellect and descriptive power — including Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Mary Marvin Breckenridge, Cecil Brown, and Richard C. Hottelet. They were later dubbed Murrow's Boys. After the war, he recruited journalists such as Alexander Kendrick, David Schoenbrun and Robert Pierpoint into the circle of Boys, as a virtual "second generation," but the track record of the original wartime crew set it apart.

Related Topics:
Eric Sevareid - Charles Collingwood - Mary Marvin Breckenridge - Cecil Brown - Richard C. Hottelet - Alexander Kendrick - David Schoenbrun - Robert Pierpoint

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow's report from the liberation of the Buchenwald extermination camp in Germany provides an example of his uncompromising style of journalism, something that caused a great deal of controversy and won him a number of critics and enemies. He described the exhausted physical state of the concentration camp prisoners who had survived, mentioned "rows of bodies stacked up like cordwood", and he refused to apologize for the harsh tone of his words:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words. If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry." — April 15, 1945

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The relationship between Murrow and Bill Shirer ended in 1947, in one of the great confrontations of American broadcast journalism, when Shirer resigned from CBS. The dispute started when J.B. Williams, maker of shaving soap, withdrew its sponsorship of Shirer's Sunday news show. CBS, of which Murrow was then vice president for public affairs, did not find Shirer another sponsor and allowed the show to keep running on a "sustaining" (non-sponsored) basis, which resulted in a loss of income for its moderator.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shirer contended that the root of his troubles was the network and sponsor not standing by him because of his comments critical of the Truman Doctrine.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The episode hastened Murrow's desire to give up his network vice presidency and return to newscasting, and foreshadowed Murrow's own problems to come with CBS founder and CEO William S. Paley.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow continued to present daily radio news reports on the CBS Radio network. He also recorded a series of spoken-word historical albums called I Can Hear It Now, which inaugurated his partnership with producer Fred W. Friendly. In 1950, the records evolved into the weekly CBS Radio show Hear It Now, coproduced by Murrow and Friendly.

Related Topics:
Fred W. Friendly - Hear It Now

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Television

As the 1950s began, Murrow began appearing on CBS Television, in editorial "tailpieces" on the CBS Evening News and special coverage of special events. This came despite his own misgivings about the new medium and its emphasis on pictures rather than ideas.

Related Topics:
1950s - CBS Evening News

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1951, the Hear It Now format Murrow and Friendly pioneered on radio moved to television as See It Now. It focused on a number of controversial issues in the 1950s, but it is best remembered as the show that criticized the Red Scare and contributed to the political downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Related Topics:
See It Now - Red Scare - Joseph McCarthy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1953, Murrow launched a series of celebrity interviews entitled Person to Person with Edward R. Murrow. Just as Murrow had nearly single-handedly pioneered TV news journalism, with Person to Person he also set the standard for celebrity interviews, producing a format that is still followed by such adherents as Barbara Walters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow, Friendly, and their news team produced a 30-minute special entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself. Murrow knew full well that he was using the medium of television to attack a single man and expose him to nationwide scrutiny, and he was often quoted as having doubts about the method he used for this news report.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow and his See It Now co-producer, Fred Friendly, paid for their own newspaper advertisement for the program; they declined to use CBS' money for the publicity campaign. Nonetheless, this 30-minute TV episode sparked off a nationwide backlash against McCarthy and against the Red Scare in general, and it is seen as a turning point in the history of television.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

McCarthy provided his own televised response to Murrow two weeks later on See It Now (Murrow had publicly offered the senator a chance to defend himself against his charges), and his own televised appearances contributed nearly as much to his own downfall as Murrow. Murrow had learned how to use the medium of television, but McCarthy had not.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, Murrow's hard-hitting approach to the news cost him influence in the world of television. See It Now occasionally scored high ratings (usually when it was approaching a particularly controversial subject), but in general it did not score well on prime-time television. When the quiz show phenomenon began and took the world of TV by storm in the late 1950s, Murrow realized the days of See It Now as a weekly show were numbered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The weekly version of See It Now ended in 1955, but the show remained as a series of occasional TV special news reports that defined television documentary news coverage.

Related Topics:
TV special - Television documentary

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow's reporting brought him into repeated conflicts with CBS and founder Paley, which Fred Friendly summarized in his book Due to Circumstances Beyond our Control. See It Now ended in 1958, after a clash between Murrow and Paley in Paley's office (and witnessed by Friendly). According to Friendly, Paley complained of having a constant stomachache every time the show tackled a controversial subject.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Beginning in 1958, Murrow hosted a talk show entitled Small World that brought together political figures for one-on-one debates. As a further example of Murrow's effect on TV journalism, this form of TV debate continues today with Sunday morning political talk shows such as This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Related Topics:
1958 - Talk show - Small World - George Stephanopoulos

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After contributing to the first episode of the documentary series CBS Reports, Murrow took a sabbatical from summer 1959 to mid-1960. His last major TV milestone was reporting and narrating the CBS Reports installment "Harvest of Shame", a report on the plight of migrant farm workers in the United States helmed by Friendly and produced by David Lowe. It ran in November 1960, just after Thanksgiving.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow finally resigned to accept a position as head of the United States Information Agency in 1961. President John F. Kennedy offered Murrow the position, which he viewed as "a timely gift".

Related Topics:
United States Information Agency - John F. Kennedy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Murrow was a heavy smoker all his life, and he was rarely seen without a cigarette. His chain smoking resulted in his developing lung cancer, and he died at his home in 1965 2 days following his 57th birthday. He is interred in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Upon his death, Murrow's colleague and friend Eric Sevareid said of him,"He was a shooting star; we will not see his like again."

Related Topics:
Lung cancer - 1965 - Green-Wood Cemetery - Brooklyn, New York - Eric Sevareid

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1998, the final episode of Murphy Brown had Murphy meeting Edward R. Murrow while visiting Heaven. Computer editing was used to insert footage of the real Murrow into the show.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~