Remembering a Broadcasting Legend – Edward R. Murrow

 

Edward R. Murrow

Almost a half century after his death, he is still considered one of the most respected and distinguished radio and television journalists of all time:  A journalist whose listeners and viewers trusted and believed him, A role model for future generations of journalists, A broadcasting legend - Edward R. Murrow.

Egbert Roscoe Murrow

The Murrow Brothers - Dewey, Lacey & Egbert

On April 25, 1908 at Polecat Creek, near Greensboro, North Carolina, Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born to Roscoe C. Murrow and Ethyl Lamb Murrow.  Egbert was the youngest of three sons and raised a Quaker.  In 1914, the family moved to Blanchard, Washington striving for a better life near the lumber industry.

Edward R. Murrow

It was during college at Washington State when Murrow changed his first name to Edward.  He graduated in 1930, majoring in Speech.  After graduation, he moved to New York and worked as the assistant secretary for the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars. 

Janet Murrow

Murrow with son, Casey

During that time he met and fell in love with Janet Huntington Brewster.  On March 12, 1935, they were married.  They had one son, Charles Casey Murrow, in 1945.

Director of Talks & Education

CBS Publicity shot

In 1935 he was hired by CBS as their first Director of Talks and Education.  Two years later, in 1937, CBS sent Murrow to Europe to set up cultural programs.  Realizing that a world-wide storm was brewing, Murrow created a network of radio correspondents that could report on the upcoming rapid changes occurring.

Murrow's Boys During the War

With a keen

Murrow's Boys After the Wat

understanding of what would be needed, Murrow gathered some of the best writers from the wire services and newspapers stationed around the world to work for him. These included William Shirer, Howard K. Smith, Eric Sevareid, Cecil Brown, Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Richard C. Hottelet, Bill Downs, Winston Burdett, Tom Grandin, Larry LeSueur and Charles Collingwood.  These men (and Mary) became the eyes and ears of World War II, sending reports and broadcasting back home to the U.S., reporting about what was happening on the front lines of the war and its effects around the world.  This small group would later become known as “Murrow’s Boys,” friends and associates of Murrow, who also believed in and set the highest standards for reporting.

Covering London

Battle of Britain

Murrow made a name for himself by his coverage leading up to and during the war.  In 1938, he reported the German occupation of Austria from Vienna as it happened.  In 1939, he made the German Blitzkrieg come alive for listeners in America.  In 1940, it was during the 10-month-long Battle of Britain that Murrow developed his calm, yet poignant style of reporting – explaining what was happening in descriptive words and phrases, while all the time immersing the audience even deeper with the actual background sounds.

"This is London..."

"Good night and good luck."

During World War II, Murrow delivered over 5,000 radio broadcasts.  It was during this time that he developed his signature ominous open to each newscast – “This is London.”  And each radio show would close with his trademark wish, “Good night and good luck.”

B-17 Flying Fortress

Writing a Story

During the war Murrow flew 25 bombing missions over Germany, recording what he saw and heard after he returned.  Americans had never been this absorbed in a war before Murrow started taking them with him every night – on to rooftops, down in bunkers, flying missions.

See It Now Title Graphic

Vice President of News Programs

After the war, Murrow returned to the New York and CBS, where he was promoted to Vice President of News Programs and offered the chance to create a radio program, Hear It Now.  In 1951, he made the move to television with See It Now.  This was television’s first news program delivered in a documentary-style format.  Murrow presented it in a narrative format while taking the viewer out in the field, where the news was happening.  Most of the stories dealt with social or political issues of the time.  See It Now was the forerunner of later news programs such as 60 Minutes, 20/20 and 48 Hours.

A McCarthy Hearing

McCarthy on See It Now

In 1954, Murrow and See It Now took on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his communist red scare tactics. By using video clips of McCarthy speaking and appearing across the country, Murrow let McCarthy damn himself with his own words and gestures. This program broke the spell Senator McCarthy had seemingly cast over the nation concerning Communism. The Senate voted 67 to 22 to censure him eight months after the show aired.

Peabody Award

William S. Paley

Murrow won a Peabody award for See It Now, and public sentiment ran 15 to 1 in favor of the McCarthy broadcast.  However, William S. Paley, head of CBS took exception to the hard-hitting program, fearing a loss of revenue.  Payle cancelled See It Now soon after, although special segments of the program were broadcast until 1958.

Television in the 1950's

Murrow in the CBS Control Room

Murrow continued to believe that radio and television could be used, not just to entertain, but also to educate and inform.  The media of the late 1950’s, as he saw it, was allowing Americans to become insulated “from the realities of the world in which we live.” 

Murrow in Chicago

On October 15, 1958, Murrow addressed the attendees of the Radio and Television News Directors Association about his concerns, saying:

“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. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”

Murrow and Harvest of Shame

Migrant Workers in 1960

Murrow’s last program at CBS was broadcast the day after Thanksgiving, 1960.  It dealt with the plight of the migrant farm workers in the U.S. and was entitled “Harvest of Shame.”
 In 1961, after several run-ins with CBS Chief Executive, Bill Paley, Murrow resigned from the network where he had spent 26 years.

Director of the U.S. Information Agency

President Kennedy and Murrow

Murrow accepted a position with the Kennedy Administration soon after as the director of the U.S. Information Agency – the forerunner of Voice of America. He held this job for three years, until he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He underwent surgery and had his left lung removed.  But the cancer continued to spread.

Murrow with his trademark cigarette

Murrow died at his farm in Pawling, New York on April 27, 1965 of lung cancer. It was reported that he smoked up to 70 cigarettes a day, about three packs. He was 57 years old.  More than 1,300 people attended his funeral.  His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered on his farm, Glen Arden, near Pawling, New York.

Medal of Freedom

Murrow received numerous awards and accolades as a broadcaster.  He was awarded 9 Emmys and two special George F. Polk Awards for Journalism. He was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a President can bestow on an American citizen, by President Johnson in 1964. Murrow was indicted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988, and his picture appeared on a 29¢ U.S. commemorative postage stamp in January 1994.

Glen Arden Farm

As his college, friend, and a member of the elite group known as Murrow’s Boys, Eric Sevareid said, 

"He was a shooting star; and we will live in his afterglow a very long time." 

~ Joy

And That’s the Way it Is……

Walter Cronkite

Today would have been the 95^th birthday of Walter Cronkite – “The Most Trusted Man in America.”   As a broadcaster and news reporter, I had my two news demigods – Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. While Murrow was the father of radio news - Cronkite was the pioneer of broadcast television news journalism. 

Walter Cronkite, Jr

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was born November 4, 1916 in St Joseph, Missouri, the only child of Walter Leland Cronkite, Sr. and Helen Fritsche Cronkite.  Walter grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and Houston, Texas.  He attended the University of Texas but dropped out to take a news reporting position with the Houston Post.

As a WKY Reporter

Betsey Maxwell Cronkite

Cronkite began his broadcasting career at a small radio station, WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  He met his wife, Mary Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Maxwell in 1936 while working for KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri.  From there he worked as a wire service reporter for the United Press (U.P.) 

U.P. Reporter during WWII

During World War II, he was an overseas correspondent for U.P.  His style caught the ear of radio news legend, Edward R. Murrow.  Murrow offered Cronkite an opportunity to move to CBS. Cronkite considered the offer but the United Press countered with the position of foreign correspondent, reopening bureaus in Amsterdam, Brussels and Moscow.  Cronkite turned Murrow down.

With Douglas Edwards and
Edward R. Murrow at CBS

It wasn’t until 1950 that he joined CBS as a television news correspondent and host of “The Morning Show, “ a position he shared with a lion puppet named Charlemagne.

Cronkite at the News Desk

Reporting for CBS

He became the anchor of the 15-minute “CBS Evening News” in April 1962.  In September 1963, the news expanded to thirty minutes, five nights a week.  Cronkite served as anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” for 19 years.  From 1967 to his retirement in 1981, the “CBS Evening News” was the ratings leader.

Cronkite receives the A.P. newsflash of Kennedy's death

One of the most powerful early memories of television journalism is of Walter Cronkite, stunned and  holding back tears when the A.P. (Associated Press) newsflash of Kenney’s death was handed to him.  Fighting to maintain his professional composure, Cronkite began “From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: “President Kennedy died at 1 P.M. Central Standard Time – 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.”

Fighting to maintain composure

Reading the announcement, Cronkite paused, put his glasses back on and swallowed hard in order to maintain his composure.

That moment sticks in the mind, just as Roosevelt’s announcement of the bombing of Pearl Harbor did for the generation before.

Reporting from Vietnam

Cronkite also reported on the Vietnam War.  Returning from Vietnam after the TET Offensive in 1968, Cronkite told his viewers, "It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is a stalemate."  When President Lyndon Johnson heard what Cronkite had said he reportedly commented, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”  Just a few weeks later, Johnson announced that he would not run for reelection.

Cronkite at the anchor desk

Man on the Moon

Cronkite is also well remembered for his 27 hours of nonstop reporting during the Apollo 11 moon landing where he exclaimed those immortal words, “Go, Baby, Go!,” when the rocket was launched.

At the news desk

In his office at CBS

A 1972 poll announced that he was the ‘most trusted man in America,” besting the President, Vice President, members of Congress and all other journalists.

On March 6, 1981, Cronkite stepped down from the CBS anchor desk.  His leaving was due to a mandatory age retirement policy that CBS held firm to.

Guest shot on Mary Tyler Moore

After his retirement, Cronkite went on to host numerous television specials.  He appeared on several regular television shows including two news-oriented comedies, the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Murphy Brown. He was a regular on the PBS, Discovery, and A & E networks.

Cronkite always considered himself a working journalist.  His main philosophy towards news reporting was to get the story “fast, accurate and unbiased.”  His autobiography “A Reporter’s Life” was a best seller when it was released in 1996.

Cronkite died in New York City on July 17, 2009.  He was 92 years old. He was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri, next to Betsey, his wife of 65 years.

On the air

As President Barrack Obama said in a statement following Cronkite’s death, "For decades, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice in America..…in an industry of icons, Walter set the standard by which all others have been judged. He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world. He was family. He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. This country has lost an icon and a dear friend, and he will be truly missed."

"Happy Birthday ‘Uncle’ Walter!" 

And thank you for setting the standard for fair, impartial reporting, the likes of which may never be seen again.

And that’s the way it is………

~ Joy