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I’m Faith Lapidus.
And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICAin VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Edward R. Murrow, a famousradio and television broadcaster. He helped create and develop modern newsbroadcasting.
Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born innineteen-oh-eight in the state of North Carolina. His parents lived on a farmin an area called Polecat Creek. The Murrows were members of the Quakers, areligious group known for its humanitarian activities and opposition to war.
When he was a boy, the Murrow family movedacross the country. They settled in the western state of Washington, near theborder with Canada. In college, Egbert Murrow changed his name to Edward. Hecompleted his college education at Washington State College in nineteen-thirty.Edward was active in college politics. He served as president of the NationalStudent Federation. He organized debates and other events for the studentorganization. He also traveled throughout the United States and Europe. EdMurrow joined the Institute of International Education in nineteen-thirty-two.He served as assistant director of the group. During this period, he married ayoung woman he had met at a student conference. Her name was Janet Brewster.They later had one child, a son.
Edward R. Murrow accepted a job with theColumbia Broadcasting System in nineteen-thirty-five. His job was to get famouspeople to speak on CBS radio programs. Two years later, Murrow was nameddirector of the CBS European office and moved to London, England. His job wasto get European officials and experts to provide comments for CBS broadcasts.Murrow was twenty-nine years old and the company’s only representative inEurope.
The situation in Europe was becoming tense.Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had come to power in Germany. Up until thattime, radio news in the United States was mostly opinions, or commentary. CBSofficials were concerned about permitting news broadcasts by reporters. Murrowoffered a job to William L. Shirer, a newspaper reporter. The two men wanted todo something different. They wanted to present radio reports about what theyhad seen and heard. In March, nineteen-thirty-eight, the two men made radiobroadcasting history. They produced a thirty-minute broadcast to report on theseizure of Austria by Nazi Germany. That meant getting people in Berlin andother European capitals to comment on the news story. Murrow traveled to Viennato report on Nazi forces entering the Austrian capital. The broadcast alsoincluded reports from London, Berlin, Paris, France and Rome, Italy. It was ahuge success.
Murrow returned to London and continued hisbroadcasts as World War Two started. He opened the reports with the words,“This is London.” Murrow was an excellent reporter who chose his words withgreat skill. His reports seemed to bring the war home to Americans. Forexample, he described the Battle of Britain as he saw and experienced it. Insome of his reports, listeners could hear the sound of bomb explosions or airraid warnings. Once, Murrow broadcast from the top of a building and describedwhat he saw. Here is part of one report from August thirty-first,nineteen-thirty-nine. Murrow describes plans by British officials to movechildren away from coastal areas:“School children will be taken by their teachers to homes in saferdistricts where they will be housed by people who have already offered toreceive them and look after them. All parents of school children are stronglyurged to let their children go. Parents will be told where their children areas soon as they reach their new homes.” Murrow organized a team of reporterswhose names would become well known to American listeners. They includedCharles Collingwood, Robert Trout, Eric Severeid, and Howard K. Smith. The teamhad eleven members. They were called “the Murrow boys.” They reported news fromthe major European capitals. Their reports were heard on the CBS radio program“World News Roundup.” These men established the traditions of broadcastjournalism. Most of the reporters had worked for newspapers or magazines. Theyhad learned to work quickly and clearly, much-needed qualities in radio. TheMurrow boys were to have a powerful effect on American broadcasting for yearsto come.
Edward R. Murrow took his listeners placesthey had never been. He let them experience things they could not imagine. Forexample, after World War Two, he was among the first Allied reporters to visitthe Buchenwald prison camp operated by the Nazis in Germany during the war.This is how he described the prisoners there:“As we walked intothe courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over sixty,were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it. Inanother part of the camp, they showed me the children, hundreds of them. Somewere only six.
One rolled up his sleeve and showed me hisnumber. It was tattooed on his arm.”
Murrow was famous when he returned home tothe United States after the war. His work in Europe guaranteed him a place inthe history of news reporting. He was appointed vice president of News at CBSin nineteen-forty-six. However, he resigned from the position the followingyear and returned to broadcasting. Murrow recorded a series of record albumswith a producer, Fred Friendly. The series was called “I Can Hear It Now.”
These programs presented historical eventsthrough recordings of speeches and news broadcasts.
Later, Murrow and Friendly developed asimilar weekly radio show. It was called “Hear It Now.” In the United States,the rise of television in the nineteen-fifties ended the period called theGolden Age of Radio Broadcasting. Most of the popular shows disappeared fromradio. More and more people started watching television. So Ed Murrow and hisboys moved to television. He joined with Fred Friendly to create the series“See It Now.” This show lasted from nineteen-fifty-one to nineteen-fifty-eight.The first “See It Now” showed the first television pictures broadcast from bothcoasts. It showed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Golden GateBridge in San Francisco, California.
In one program, “See It Now” examinedaccusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He had accused governmentofficials of being supporters or members of the Communist Party. The programshowed that Senator McCarthy had no real evidence for the accusations. Somepeople say the program helped to end the senator’s hunt for Communists. Expertssay the program was important in the history of television. Other broadcasts on“See It Now” concerned important issues of race, war and government dishonesty.
Murrow also started another television showcalled “Person to Person.” He spoke with famous people in their homes. Oneprogram visited Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former President Franklin D.Roosevelt. The show also visited actress Marilyn Monroe, actor Marlon Brandoand Senator John F. Kennedy. Ed Murrow also produced a number of specialinvestigative programs for CBS. One such program was called “Harvest of Shame.”It showed the hard lives and poor living conditions of farm workers who movefrom place to place.
Some people say this broadcast was sopowerful that it influenced American lawmakers to pass measures to protectthese migrant workers. Murrow’s reporting and choice of subjects often led todisputes with his supervisors at CBS. AfterJohn F.Kennedy was elected president, he asked the newsman to lead the UnitedStates Information Agency. Murrow served as the agency’s director fromnineteen-sixty-one to nineteen-sixty-four. Then, he retired from the job.
Murrow was sick with lung cancer. He hadsmoked cigarettes for much of his life. He died in nineteen-sixty-five at hisfarm in Pawling, New York. He was fifty-seven years old. By the time he died,Murrow had won all of the top awards given to reporters. He also receivedhonors from five colleges. President Lyndon Johnson gave him the Medal ofFreedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen.Today, Edward R. Murrow is remembered for his influence on broadcasting and thequality of his reporting. Former CBS chairman William Paley once said Murrowwas a man made for his time and work. Paley called him a student, a thinkerand, at heart, a poet of mankind. As a result, he said, Murrow was a greatreporter.
