Edward R. Murrow

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Ron Simon

Edward R. Murrow is the preeminent journalist in American broadcasting, having defined the standards of excellence and social responsibility for the news media. He was the guiding force for the development of news and public affairs on radio during the 1930s and 1940s as well as television during the 1950s. He almost single-handedly created a tradition that distinguished the broadcast journalist from the newspaper reporter while embodying the ideals of courage and integrity for the entire profession.

Murrow is one of the few giants of the industry to live up to his legend. He had both the style and substance to incarnate the quintessential roving correspondent. With his rich, resonant voice and penetrating eye, he documented some of the most profound events of the twentieth century. He also looked the part of the slightly world-weary reporter who was impelled by conscience to set the record straight. A Hemingwayesque figure with brooding good looks and invariably draped in a worn raincoat, Murrow was described as "the only foreign correspondent who could play a foreign correspondent in the movies and give all the glamour Hollywood wants."

Murrow's rise to fame is even more astounding because he never aspired to a reportorial career. Unlike his contemporaries in radio, who almost exclusively came from a newspaper background, Murrow was trained as an educational administrator. Born Egbert Roscoe Murrow in Greensboro, North Carolina on April 25, 1908, he graduated from Washington State University with majors in political science, speech, and international relations. He served as president of the National Student Federation, organizing international travel for students and debates between American and European universities. He also was assistant director of the Institute of International Education, where he supervised offices in London, Berlin, and Vienna. He was hired by CBS in 1935 for his executive ability, not his journalistic skills.

His first responsibility was as director of talks and special events, where he secured personalities to appear on the CBS radio network. In 1937 he was sent to London to schedule European speakers and oversee short-wave cultural programming. In March of 1938 he was on his way to Poland to arrange for a School of the Air broadcast when Adolf Hitler's German forces invaded Austria. Murrow chartered a passenger airliner and, out of necessity, reported the occupation from Vienna. He followed up with reports from London, describing Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's negotiations with the Germans and the eventual annexation of Czechoslovakia a year later.

In the late 1930s there was no network tradition of reporting international crises. With another major war almost inevitable, Murrow was instructed to staff correspondents in all the major European capitals. His team, known as "Murrow's boys," was radio's first professional corps of journalists and reported daily on CBS's World News Roundup. The members, whose ranks included William Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, and Howard K. Smith, were imbued with their leader's unflagging dedication and would have an impact on broadcast news for years to come.

More than anyone else, Murrow was able to bring the war into the homes of America. During the bombing of London in the fall of 1939 and early 1940, his impressionistic prose captured the anxiety and resolve of British people. Often speaking from the rooftops, Murrow commenced each broadcast with a somber gravity, "This ... is London." His graphic description, called "metallic poetry" by one critic, gave an eyewitness account of the horror and devastation of the blitz. Poet Archibald MacLeish stated that Murrow "burned the city of London in our houses and we felt that flame ... [he] laid the dead of London at our doors." Because of Murrow's intimate broadcasts, America no longer seemed thousands of miles away from the conflict.

In his long career, Murrow was never an impartial anchorman. He emerged from the tradition of the radio commentator, who did not shy away from expressing an opinion. During World War II Murrow wove his editorial views subtly into the broadcasts, not trying to be objective about the war against Hitler. As he often said, there is no reason to balance the values of Jesus Christ with those of Judas Iscariot. After World War II, Murrow had hope that the media would engage other less defined issues, such as injustice and ignorance.

During the mid-1940s, Murrow was a national celebrity, but had trouble finding a forum for his pursuit of truth. He was dissatisfied as a CBS vice president in charge of news and public affairs. He deliberately avoided television, proclaiming "I wish goddamned television had never been invented." In 1948 he found piece of mind by producing a series of record albums with Fred W. Friendly, a former radio producer at a Rhode Island station. The I Can Hear It Now albums interwove historical events and speeches with Murrow narration and, surprisingly, became a commercial success. The Murrow/Friendly partnership clicked, and the team developed a radio series, Hear It Now, which featured the sounds of current events, illuminated, of course, by the wisdom of Murrow.