Edward R. Murrow

At 57 years old, Edward R. Murrow has this physical status:

Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow, 1908 – 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent.

He first rose to fame during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe for CBS's news division.

During the war, he recruited and worked closely with a team of war correspondents who came to be known as the Murrow Boys. Murrow, a pioneer of radio and television news broadcasting, authored a series of reports on his television show See It Now, which eventually resulted in Senator Joseph McCarthy's censure.

Murrow is one of journalism's most notable figures, according to fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan Rather, and Alexander Kendrick, who cites his honesty and integrity in delivering the news.

Early life

Murrow was born Egbert Roscoe Murrow in Guilford County, North Carolina, to Roscoe Conklin Murrow and Ethel F. Murrow (née Lamb) Murrow. He and his parents were Quakers. He was the youngest of four brothers and was a "mixture of Scottish, Irish, English, and German" descent. Roscoe Jr., the firstborn, lived just a few hours. Lacey Van Buren was four years old when Murrow was born, while Dewey Joshua was two years old. On a farm that was just getting a few hundred dollars a year from corn and hay, his home was a log cabin without electricity or plumbing.

Murrow's family migrated across the country to Skagit County in western Washington to homestead near Blanchard, 30 miles (50 km) south of the Canada-United States border when he was six years old. He attended high school in Edison, was president of the student body in his senior year, and excelled on the debate team. He was also a member of the Skagit County basketball team, which also won the Skagit County championship.

Murrow attended Washington State College (now Washington State University) in Pullman, Connecticut, and later majored in speech after graduating from high school in 1926. He was also active in college politics as a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. Murrow went by the name "Ed" during his second year of college, and he changed his name from Egbert to Edward. Murrow, who was attending the National Student Federation of America's annual convention in 1929, delivered a address urging college students to become more involved in national and international affairs, resulting in his appointment as president of the federation. He returned east to New York after finishing his bachelor's degree in 1930.

Murrow, the founder of the Institute of International Education, served as assistant secretary of the Emergency Committee in Support of Displaced Foreign Scholars, which supported influential German scholars who had been barred from academic positions. On March 12, 1935, he married Janet Huntington Brewster. Charles Casey Murrow's uncle was born in the west of London on November 6, 1945.

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Career at CBS

Murrow first joined CBS in 1935 and stayed with the network for his entire career. When Murrow took over, CBS did not have news people, except for announcer Bob Trout. Murrow's job was to bring together newsmakers who would appear on the network to address the day's concerns. Trout's on-air performance had piqued the audience, but Murrow gave Murrow tips on how to communicate on radio.

Murrow moved to London in 1937 to serve as the head of CBS's European operations. The position did not involve on-air reporting; his job was compelled European figures to be broadcast on the CBS network, which was in direct competition with NBC's two radio networks. He made several trips around Europe during this period. Murrow recruited journalist William L. Shirer in 1937 and assigned him to a similar position on the continent. The start of the "Murrow Boys" team of war correspondents was announced here.

Murrow caught his first glimpse of fame during the 1938 Anschluss, in which Adolf Hitler orchestrated Hitler's orchestration of Austria's secession by Nazi Germany. Though Murrow was in Poland arranging a broadcast of children's choruses, he learned from Shirer of the annexation — and the fact that Shirer could not get the word out through Austrian state radio stations. Murrow took Shirer immediately to London, where he gave an uncensored, eyewitness account of the Anschluss. Murrow then charted the only available mode of transportation, a 23-passenger plane, to fly from Warsaw to Vienna, so he could take over for Shirer.

Murrow and Shirer, a CBS management firm in New York, produced a European News Roundup of reaction to the Anschluss, bringing correspondents from many European cities together for a single broadcast. The special was hosted by Bob Trout in New York on March 13, 1938, and featured Shirer Newspaper in Berlin, reporter Ellen Wilkinson, editor of the Chicago Daily News in Berlin, journalist Pierre J. Huss of the International News Service in Berlin, and Senator Lewis B. Schwellenbach in Washington, D.C., but he was unable to find a transmitter to broadcast reaction from the Italian capital. In the first on-the-scene news report of his career, 116–120 Murrow appeared live from Vienna: "This is Edward Murrow speaking from Vienna." It's now nearly 2:30 a.m., and Herr Hitler has yet to arrive."

At the time, the broadcast was considered groundbreaking. It was a multipoint, live broadcast carried by shortwave in the days before modern technology was introduced (and without one of the parties being able to hear one another properly), but it came off almost flawlessly. The special served as the foundation for World News Roundup, the broadcasting company's oldest news series, and it continues to air on CBS Radio Networks on Monday morning and evening.

Murrow and Shirer were regular participants in CBS' coverage of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, which Hitler coveted for Germany and ultimately won in the Munich Agreement in September 1938. "Calling Ed Murrow... come in Ed Murrow," a journalist from New York's incisive reporting boosted the American appetite for radio news, with listeners eagerly waiting for Murrow's shortwave broadcasts.

Murrow remained based in London throughout the following year, leading up to the outbreak of World War II. Following William Shirer's return to the United States in December 1940, his reporting from Berlin earned him national recognition and a commentator's position with CBS News. In his best-selling 1941 book Berlin Diary, Shirer will recount his Berlin experience. Murrow stayed in London and later hosted live radio broadcasts during the Blitz in London After Dark, 1939-1939. These live, shortwave broadcasts were relayed on CBS electrified radio audiences as news programming never had: previous war coverage had mostly been provided by newspaper articles, as well as newsreels seen in movie theaters; earlier radio news shows simply featured an announcer; earlier radio news shows had simply included an announcer in a studio reading wire service news.

Postwar broadcasting career

Murrow reluctantly accepted William S. Paley's offer to serve as a vice president and head of CBS News in December 1945 and delivered his last news report from London in March 1946. 259, 261 His presence and personality inspired the newsroom. He maintained close relationships with his former recruits, including Murrow Boys, after the war. Later this year, younger CBS coworkers became outraged over this, seeing it as preferential care, and they established the "Murrow Isn't God Club" group. When Murrow asked if he could join, the club disbanded.

During Murrow's tenure as vice president, his relationship with Shirer began in 1947, when Shirer was fired by CBS in one of America's biggest battles of American broadcast journalism. He resigned in the heat of an interview at the time, but was later fired. When J. sparked the controversy, it began. B. Williams, a shaving soap manufacturer, withdrew its support for Shirer's Sunday news show. Murrow, then vice president for public affairs, and CBS, which then went "in a new direction," hired a new host and let Shirer go. These performances have evolved; Shirer's was not announced until 1990; Shirer's were not widely distributed until 1990.

Shirer argued that the source of his issues was the network and sponsor not standing by him because of his Truman Doctrine skepticism, as well as other remarks that were considered outside of the mainstream. Shirer and his allies felt he was muzzled due to his convictions. Murrow, as well as some of Murrow's Boys, believed that Shirer was relying on his good name but not working hard enough to support his conclusions with his own study. Murrow and Shirer's close friendship never recovered.

Murrow's desire to give up his network vice president and return to newscasting has been harmed, and the episode has influenced his own challenges, including CBS's boss Paley.

Murrow and Paley were close when the network's chief himself joined the war effort, establishing Allied radio stations in Italy and North Africa. After the war, he would often go to Paley to address any problems he had. "Ed Murrow was Bill Paley's one genuine friend in CBS," Murrow biographer Joseph Persico wrote.

Murrow appeared on television in September 1947, taking over the evening at 7:45 p.m. Campbell's Soup is sponsored by his old friend and an announcement coach Bob Trout, who is anchored by his old buddy and announcing coach Bob Trout. Murrow concentrated on radio for the next two years, and in lieu of news broadcasts, he gave special addresses for CBS News Radio. He narrated The Case of the Flying Saucer on radio in 1950, a half-hour radio program. It gave a balanced account of UFOs, a subject of widespread concern at the time. Both Kenneth Arnold and astronomer Donald Menzel were interviewed by Murrow.

Murrow, the host of This I Believe, which gave ordinary people the opportunity to talk for five minutes on radio, from 1951 to 1955. On the CBS Radio Network, he continued to provide daily radio news reports until 1959. I Can Hear It Now, a series of narrated "historical albums" for Columbia Records, which began his collaboration with producer Fred W. Friendly. The records began in 1950 with Hear It Now, a weekly CBS Radio show hosted by Murrow and co-produced by Murrow and Friendly.

Murrow began his television career in the 1950s by appearing in editorial "tailpieces" on the CBS Evening News and in special events coverage. Despite his own misgivings about the new medium and its emphasis on appearance rather than ideas, he was able to write this story.

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Murrow narrated the political documentary Alliance for Peace, a news vehicle for the newly formed SHAPE that discusses the effects of the Marshall Plan on a war-torn Europe in 1952. It was written by William Templeton and produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr.

In 1953, Murrow introduced Person to Person, a series of celebrity interviews.

Murrow appears in Sink the Bismarck in 1960.

See It Now examined a number of controversial topics in the 1950s, but it is best remembered as the show that condemned McCarthyism and the Red Scare, arguably leading to Senator Joseph McCarthy's political demise. McCarthy had previously lauded Murrow for his fairness in reporting.

Murrow hosted the Ford 50th Anniversary Exhibition on June 15, 1953, which was simultaneously broadcast on NBC and CBS and watched by 60 million viewers. Murrow's commentary ended with a misjudge of nuclear war against the backdrop of a mushroom cloud. "Nations have lost their freedom while defending it," Murrow said, "We refuse to believe in disloyalty; we deny the right to be wrong." Tom Shales, a television analyst, recalled the program as both "a major in the cultural life of the 1950s" and "a turning point in the cultural life of the '50s."

Murrow, Friendly, and their news staff produced "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy" on March 9, 1954. Since See It Now debuted and was encouraged by several colleagues, including Bill Downs, Murrow had considered doing such a show. However, Friendly wanted to do so at the right time. Murrow used excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and highlight instances in which he had contradicted himself. Murrow and Friendly paid for their own newspaper advertisement for the scheme, but they were not allowed to use CBS' funds for the publicity campaign or even use the CBS logo.

McCarthy's broadcast caused a national outrage against him, and is seen as a turning point in television history. It brought tens of thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls to CBS headquarters, a margin that has dominated by 15.1 to 1. Friendly described how truck drivers rolled up to Murrow on the street in subsequent days and yelled "Good show, Ed."

McCarthy was given the opportunity to respond to the criticism by a full half hour on See It Now. McCarthy accepted the invitation and appeared on April 6, 1954. McCarthy dismissed Murrow's criticism and accused him of being a communist sympathizer [McCarthy also accused Murrow of being a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow denied]. McCarthy also appealed to the public by criticizing his detractors, saying: "I did not say anything wrong."

McCarthy's rebuttal was ultimately intended to damage his already fading fame. Murrow said in the program following McCarthy's appearance that McCarthy had "made no mention of any statements of fact that we made" and rebutted McCarthy's allegations against him.

Murrow's hard-hitting coverage of the news, on the other hand, cost him his place in television culture. See It NowOccasionally earned high ratings (mostly when it was addressing a controversial topic), but in general, it did not do well on prime time television.

Murrow recalls the days of See It Now as a weekly television show when a quiz show phenomenon emerged and took over television in the mid-1950s. (British writer Joseph Persico reports that Murrow, who was watching an early episode of The 64,000 Questionaire on television just before his own See It Now, has turned to Friendly and asked how long they should hold their time slot).

See It Now was forced out of its weekly slot in 1955 after sponsoring Alcoa withdrew its advertising, but the program remained as a series of occasional TV special news reports that characterized television documentary news coverage. Given the show's fame, CBS had trouble finding a permanent sponsor since it aired intermittently in its new time slot (Sunday afternoons at 5 p.m.). The television network had not developed a loyal following by the end of 1956, but it did not have a regular audience.

Murrow took time in 1956 to appear as the on-screen narrator of Michael Todd's epic film Around the World in 80 Days. Although the prologue was largely ignored on telecasts of the film, it was nonetheless included in home video releases.

Murrow hosted Small World, a talk show that brought together political figures for one-to-one debates beginning in 1958. He appeared on WGBH's The Press and the People with Louis Lyons in January 1959, addressing television journalism's role.

In the British film version of Sink the Bismarck, Murrow appeared as himself in a cameo. In 1960, he was reenacting some of the wartime broadcasts he did from London for CBS.

He introduced educational television to New York City on September 16, 1962, the first broadcast of WNDT, which later became WNET.

Murrow's reporting brought him into recurring rivalry with CBS, especially its chairman William Paley, which Friendly outlined in his book Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control. See It Now After a tumultuous protest in Paley's office, a riot stopped the whole summer 1958. Murrow had told Paley that if the network had repeatedly delivered (without consulting Murrow) equal time to subjects who were wronged by the program, he would not continue doing the show.

Murrow, according to Friendly, asked Paley if he was going to destroy See It Now, which the CBS chief executive had not invested so much. When Murrow covered a controversial topic, Paley said he did not want a constant stomach pain.

"Watch on the Ruhr," the last broadcast of It Now's (covering postwar Germany), aired on July 7, 1958. Murrow blasted television's emphasis on entertainment and commercialism at the expense of public interest in his "wires and lights" speech three months later, on October 15, 1958.

Murrow's friendship with Paley was seriously harmed by the Chicago satir's sarcastic tone, who believed Murrow was biting the hand that fed him. Friendly said that the RTNDA (now Radio Television Digital News Association) address did more than the McCarthy show to break the CBS boss and his most respected journalist before his death.

The rise of a new generation of television journalists was another contributing factor to Murrow's career decline. Walter Cronkite's arrival at CBS in 1950 marks the start of a big rivalry that continued until Murrow resigned from the network in 1961. Murrow had a grudge dating back to 1944, when Cronkite turned down his bid to head the CBS Moscow bureau. Cronkite felt like an outsider right after joining the network, with the Murrow Boys dominating the newsroom. The pair found it increasingly difficult to work together as Murrow's career seemed to be on decline and Cronkite's on the rise. Cronkite's demeanor was similar to journalists Murrow had recruited; the difference was that Murrow regarded the Murrow Boys as satellites rather than potential rivals, as Cronkite indicated.

In part, the two groups became embroiled in tense debates during the 1950s, partly due to their professional rivalry. Cronkite and Murrow argued over the role of sponsors at a dinner party hosted by Bill Downs at his Bethesda home, arguing that "paid the rent" was disputed by Cronkite. Murrow, who had long slammed sponsors but was also dependent on them, replied angrily. In another case, an argument devolved into a "duel" in which the two drunkenly took two antique dueling pistols and posed to shoot at each other. 527 Despite this, Cronkite went on to have a long career as an anchor at CBS.

Murrow was nominated by New York's Democratic Party to run for the Senate after the conclusion of See It Now. Paley was ecstatic and encouraged to do it. Harry Truman advised Murrow that he had the option of either being a junior senator from New York or being Edward R. Murrow, a beloved broadcast journalist, and sheo to millions. Truman listened to Truman.

Murrow, who was heavily under physical strain due to his family's ties and apprehension with CBS, went on a sabbatical from 1959 to mid-1960, although he continued to work on CBS Reports and Small World during this period. After the sabbatical, Jerry Bates, the network's executive producer, wanted Murrow to return as his co-producer, but he was ultimately turned down.

Murrow's last major television milestone was reporting and narrating a CBS Reports installment Harvest of Shame, a study on the plight of migrant farmworkers in the United States. It was directed by Friendly and produced by David Lowe in November 1960, just after Thanksgiving.

In January 1961, Murrow resigned from CBS to accept a job as president of the United States Information Agency, the parent of the Voice of America. President John F. Kennedy gave Murrow the position, which he described as "a timely gift." According to CBS, Frank Stanton had been offered the position but turned down, suggesting that Murrow be given the opportunity.

His appointment as the head of the United States Information Agency was seen as a vote of confidence in the department, which issued the government's official viewpoints to the public in other countries. During McCarthy's time, the USIA had been under fire, and Murrow had recalled Reed Harris, at least one of McCarthy's victims. Murrow maintained on a high level of presidential accessibility, telling Kennedy, "I'd better be there for the takeoffs if you want me in on the landings." However, the early effects of cancer discouraged him from participating in the Bay of Pigs Invasion planning. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he did assist the president but was ill at the time when the president was assassinated. Murrow was drawn into Vietnam because USIA was sent to inform reporters in Saigon that Ngo Dinh Diem's government represented the Vietnamese people's hopes and aspirations. Murrow knew that the Diem government had no such thing. Murrow attempted to continue serving by President Lyndon B. Johnson, but resigned in early 1964, citing sickness. Barry Zorthian was the last spokesman for the US government in Saigon, Vietnam, before his departure.

Murrow's celebrity gave the department a greater presence, which may have helped it gain more funds from Congress. Murrow's appointment to a national Security Council resulted in a humiliating occurrence immediately after starting work; nevertheless, the BBC refused to air his documentary "Harvest of Shame" in order not to damage the American image of the EU; however, the BBC refused as it had bought the service in good faith. "If Murrow builds up America as effectively as he tore it to pieces last night," one Daily Sketch writer said.

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