Murrow, Founder of American Broadcast Journalism

By Bob Edwards

On the day Ed Murrow died, Eric Sevareid (CBS correspondent and one of "Murrow's Boys") eulogized his old friend and colleague on "The CBS Evening News." Sevareid said of Murrow, "He was a shooting star and we shall not see his like again." It was both a tribute and a safe prediction.

The founder only passes by once. Murrow's accomplishments can't be duplicated because he was writing on a blank page. On a single day in 1938 he pioneered the overseas network reporting staff and the roundup news format while reinventing himself, transforming a junior executive into a foreign correspondent. Then in 1951, he moved television beyond its function as a headline service and established it as an original news source, not a medium that merely duplicated stories culled from newspapers. He also gave broadcast journalism a set of standards that matched those of the best newspapers in terms of what stories to cover and how to cover them. From two platforms of show business he carved out space for serious investigation and discussion of public affairs. Although he knew how to entertain, as shown by the success of "Person to Person" (his television show featuring celebrity interviews), he was adamant about keeping entertainment out of broadcast journalism.

If Sevareid meant we would not see the like of Murrow the individual, his prediction still holds. We all know people who possess one or more of Murrow's qualities, but no one has them all to the degree he did. He was the embodiment of the American Dream. Born among the hard-scrabble dirt farmers of Polecat Creek, North Carolina, and raised among the migrant laborers and lumberjacks of rural Washington, he never lost his working-class values. Although comfortable in the company of janitors and diplomats, he could also be shy and awkward, sometimes even with close associates. Unable to make small talk and unwilling to fake it, he felt no guilt about subjecting people to long silences. He knew a wide range of remarkable people, gave away a great deal of money, and found jobs for dozens of acquaintances, yet believed he had no real friends.

Murrow was a good manager, leading by example rather than by meetings and memos, and he was a near-flawless judge of talent. He was smart but not brilliant, his mind working skillfully like the debater he was in college. His scripts presented his case in an orderly, lawyerlike manner. Education was his first profession and he truly was a teacher, ever anxious to learn something new and to pass it on in what he called the biggest classroom in the world. He had a moral code rooted in populism and justice, taking the side of the underdog and taking the starch out of the stuffed shirts.

Most of all, Murrow was absolutely fearless. His favorite commentator, Elmer Davis, used to say, "Don't let the b___ scare you." Nothing scared Murrow — not bombs, dictators, generals, members of Congress, sponsors, corporate executives, or Joseph McCarthy. Murrow could not be muscled, bullied, bought, corrupted, or intimidated. He could, however, be flawed in judgment, as he was with Frank Stanton (CBS, Inc. president). It was convenient for Murrow to see Stanton as the enemy of the news. Six years after Murrow's death Stanton risked a prison sentence for contempt by refusing to give a congressional committee outtakes from a "CBS Reports" documentary called "The Selling of the Pentagon." Even Murrow would have had to concede that Stanton was a champion of journalism that day.

The real reason we'll not see Murrow's like again is that everything that allowed Murrow to be Murrow has changed dramatically. Murrow benefited from being the standard to whom all who follow should be compared. When you're the "first" at something you get to write a lot of your own rules. …

It's difficult to imagine Murrow lasting very long in broadcast journalism today because his programs would be required to make money. Nonbroadcasters acquired the networks in the 1980s when the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) no longer mandated public service programming. The new owners, principally concerned with profits and share prices, ordered the network news divisions to be profitable. They saw no reason why the news division should not be a profit center, just like the movie studio, publishing house, or other properties they owned. When news has to make money, the substance, character, and look of the news changes. In the public service era, the networks produced documentaries. In the profit era, documentaries have been replaced by magazine programs heavy on crime, items about celebrities, feel-good features, and the latest trendy disease. These programs have to compete with entertainment programs in prime time. The only way a news program can compete in prime time is to become an entertainment program. …

The fact is that we had Murrow when we needed him most — at the beginning of broadcast journalism, before there was a corrupting requirement that news make money. The profession looks so bad today, in part, because Murrow set the standard so high at its birth. We see a bit of his legacy every time there is an important story and broadcast journalism functions as it's supposed to. It's important to remember that once upon a time we turned to radio and television to entertain us and nothing more. If we expect the broadcast media to inform us, educate us, and enlighten us, it's because Edward R. Murrow led us to believe that they would.

Broadcast journalist Bob Edwards hosts "The Bob Edwards Show" on XM Satellite Radio. He was the popular host of National Public Radio's flagship program, "Morning Edition," for 25 years, beginning in its debut year of 1979. The segment above is excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism. Copyright �2004 by Bob Edwards. This book is available at all bookstores, online booksellers and from the Wiley Web site at www.wiley.com, or call 1-800-CALL-WILEY.

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