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.

Quotes

• About television: "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box." 1
• "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."

:– Speech to staff, March 9 1954

Related Topics:
March 9 - 1954

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• "If we confuse dissent with disloyalty ? if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox ? if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the ... confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."

:– Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, June 1953, "Conclusion." Murrow: His Life and Times, A.M. Sperber, Freundlich Books, 1986

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