Castor helped shape the style of television journalism, giving it
integrity, courage, and pride. He never anchored a television news program, yet no
one was more responsible for making television news an accepted and vital
part of contemporary journalism. During a remarkable career, he shared friendship
with heads of state and was honored at home and abroad. This program is his
story, produced by correspondent friends of his at the British Broadcasting
Corporation and collaborated in by his longtime American colleagues. This is the
story of Edward R. Murrow.
This is London. At the moment, everything is quiet. For reasons of national as well
as personal security, I am unable to tell you the exact location from which
I'm speaking. You may be able to hear the sound of guns off in the distance very
faintly like someone kicking a tub. The searchlights are stretching out now in
this general direction. I can hear just a faint whisper of an aircraft high
overhead. Again, those guns are considerable distance away. Now you'll hear
two bursts a little nearer in a moment. There they are. That hard, stony sound.
This was the secret location of that live midnight broadcast of 35 years ago.
The roof of Broadcasting House and the reporter was Edward R. Murrow, who spoke
from London almost every night to a great audience across the Atlantic. He
was a good friend of mine from the time we became war correspondents together. At
the start of a career which brought him great national and international acclaim,
not only as a reporter and a commentator, but also as a statesman of broadcasting.
Of all the media, broadcasting is the most ephemeral. Its stars quickly fade.
What was so different about this American, still so vividly remembered today,
ten years after his death, who first made his name speaking to his fellow
countrymen from wartime London. In 1937, few people knew Edward R. Murrow. He worked
in England as the Columbia Broadcasting System's European director, arranging
cultural radio programs. But culture was soon to take a backseat to fascism in
Europe. War was on the horizon and because he was the only network
representative on the other side of the Atlantic, Murrow became a broadcaster.
When Germany began its almost daily bombing raids over England, Murrow began
live nightly broadcasts to the United States from London.
This is London. You can have little understanding of the life in London
these days. There are no words to describe the thing that is happening. The
courage of the people, the flash and roar of the guns rolling down the streets, the
stench of the air raid shelters. In three or four hours people must get up and go
to work, just as though they had a full night's rest, free from the rumble of
guns and the wonder that comes when they wake and listen in the dead hours of the
night. At dawn Londoners come oozing out of the ground, tired and red-eyed and
sleepy. The fires are dying down. I saw them turn into their own street to see
if their house was still standing. No one could avoid being impressed with the
patience and calm determination of these people who dwell in little houses. This
is London. Every American of my age remembers Ed Murrow in those historic
broadcasts, This is London. He was a powerful force for the Allies. Even
before the United States was in the war, he helped mobilize American sentiment in
behalf of the Allies and particularly in behalf of Britain. If the
United Kingdom had sought to develop a public relations counselor or exponent,
they couldn't have done better than to have Ed Murrow from This is London. Those
nightly broadcasts from Britain made Ed Murrow the best-known voice on
American radio. The poet Archibald McLeish said of him, You burnt the city
of London in our homes and we felt the flames. I'm not a very good sociologist
but I can tell you this from personal experience, that sirens would increase
your knowledge of even your most intimate friend. This is a class-conscious
country but if a man with an unearned income is caught in the streets when a
siren sounds, he may have a waitress stepping on his heels and see before him
the broad back of a laborer as he goes underground. This is not a Merry Christmas
in London. I heard that phrase only twice in the last three days. It can't be a
Merry Christmas for these people who spend tonight in the shelters realize
they have bought their Christmas with their nerves, their bodies, and their
buildings. Probably the best summary of this year that is dying was written by
Wordsworth in 1806. Another year, another deadly blow, another mighty empire
overthrown and we are left or shall be left alone. The last that dared to struggle
with the foe. British correspondent Frank Gillard recalls his style and dedication.
His work was vivid, personal, always more penetrating than mere description. He used
short active words and declarative sentences, building pictures in the mind's
eye that required no visual images. At every opportunity he wanted to be where
the action was to see for himself as a true reporter should. Personal danger was
something he totally disregarded to the anguish of his wife and colleagues. 25
times he faced the perils of flying on bombing missions over Germany even as
far as Berlin in D-Dog, an RAF Lancaster bomber. D-Dog was corkscrewing. As we
rolled down on the other side I began to see what was happening to Berlin. The
clouds were gone and the sticks of incendies from the preceding waves made
the place look like a badly laid out city with the streetlights on. The small
incendies were going down like a fistful of white rice thrown on a piece of black
velvet. The cookies, the 4,000 pound high explosives were bursting below like
great sunflowers gone mad. As radio's war coverage grew to full stature, Ed
Murrow needed colleagues. He gathered a team of reporters around him in London.
Young talent, very able. They all became big national names on CBS. One was
Charles Collingwood, a Rhodes scholar working in London with the United Press.
As a teacher he was not at all didactic but after I had been with CBS for two
or three days he said I have a dinner date. Would you mind doing the evening
news broadcast which is the principal one and I said well yes I'll try and I
got in early and I looked at all the wires and I wrote my piece and I went
down to the BBC and I got it censored. Still no Ed. I sat down at the table in
those days everything was live. Clock ticking away. Finally seconds before I
went on the air Ed came in and sat down and I did my little broadcast but I
forgot that in those days one had to say this is Charles Collingwood in London
now back to whoever it was in New York and there were two seconds pause Ed
leaned forward and said this is Charles Collingwood in London now back to so and
so in New York. So I said oh dear dreadfully I said what else did I do
wrong and he said no no you did just fine just fine. Then the next night he
asked me to do the broadcast and several times I kept saying what do I do wrong
and finally he said well the microphones at the BBC are very sensitive and you
don't have to sound as though you're talking on a long-distance phone with a
bad connection. Then later he said it's a little monotonous you ought to change
the pace here and there and that was about the extent of his teaching. Years
later I said to him why was it that you didn't really give me any instruction
but just threw me into the water and he said because I wanted you to sound like
yourself and not like me. At war's end Murrow was at Buchenwald when allied
forces opened the doors on the Nazi hell of concentration camps. When I entered
men crowded around tried to lift me to their shoulders they were too weak many
of them could not get out of bed. I was told that this building had once
stabled 80 horses there were 1,200 men in it five to a bunk the stink was beyond
all description. In another part of the camp they showed me the children
hundreds of them some were only six one rolled up his sleeve showed me his
number it was tattooed on his arm D 6030 it was the other showed me their
numbers they will carry them till they die. The children clung to my hands and
stared there were two rows of bodies stacked up like cordwood they were thin
and very white. It appeared that most of the men and boys had died of starvation
they had not been executed but the manner of death seemed unimportant. Murder
had been done at Buchenwald. Ed Murrow's access to the immense American public
was noted in high places in London and perhaps exploited. Gilbert Winnent the
official United States representative called him the authentic American
ambassador but when the war ended he and his wife wanted to go home with Casey
their infant son born in London. In February 1946 he broadcast his farewell
to the British public. I believe that I have learned the most important thing
that has happened in Britain during the last six years it was not I think the
demonstration of physical courage that has been a cheap commodity in this war
many people of many nations were brave under the bomb. I doubt that the most
important thing was Dunkirk or the Battle of Britain, El Alamein or
Stalingrad not even the landings in Normandy or the great blows struck by
British and American bombers. Historians may decide that any one of these events
was decisive but I am persuaded that the most important thing that happened in
Britain was that this nation chose to win or lose this war under the established
rules of parliamentary procedure. Future generations who bother to read the
official record of proceedings in the House of Commons will discover that
British armies retreated from many places but that there was no retreat from
the principles for which your ancestors fought. The record is massive evidence of
the flexibility and toughness of the principles you profess.
Ed Murrow returned to the United States as the most famous and distinguished
broadcast journalist in our country. He had come a long way from Polecat Creek
in North Carolina where he was born in 1908 the son of a small tenant farmer.
The family soon moved out 3,000 miles to the timber country of the far Pacific
Northwest where life remained hard. Egbert that was his original name became
a student leader at Washington State College and he went on to become
president of the National Student Federation of America. The educational
environment appealed to him and his first salary job was with the Institute
of International Education. He met and married a young teacher Janet Brewster
a New Englander from Connecticut. When we were married Ed was the assistant
director of the Institute of International Education and I expected
that we'd spend all the rest of our lives with academicians. But they didn't.
CBS sent him to Europe and when he returned after the war rewarded him with
a top administrative job but Murrow soon discovered he was a journalist and not
an administrator. He missed the front lines of broadcasting. Fortunately his
boss and good friend CBS president William Paley recognized his love for
reporting. I had the feeling after a while that is as good as he as he what
it was at his job but he really wasn't enjoying it and that he probably missed
not being on the air and I spoke to him about it once or twice but that was a
person a certain kind of determination once he made up his mind he's gonna do
something and agree to it it was awful hard to get him to change his mind and
each time he was so no bill I'm perfectly happy and enjoying it it's
fine and finally one day I said that you know I don't think you are I think you're
really kidding me you're kidding yourself and I just want you to know
there's nothing in any kind of arrangement between us that says you
can't change your mind and go back on the air if you feel like it or would be
happier doing it or think you make a better contribution doing that than
being an executive and he said no no I'll continue doing what I'm doing of
course if you order me to go back on the air I will so I said that I order you to
and a great big smiles but I don't know how to over his face and of course that's
what he wanted to do so Ed Murrow was back on radio broadcasting a nightly
15-minute news commentary and exploring ways of presenting major issues at
greater length and in analytical detail a new idea in a weekly documentary
series called hear it now he recruited a crusading colleague Fred W friendly and
together not without apprehension and anxiety they faced a great new challenge
as here it now became see it now CBS television in cooperation with its
affiliated television stations presents the distinguished reporter and news
analyst Edward R. Murrow in see it now edited by Mr. Murrow and Fred W friendly
a public service of the CBS television network this is an old team trying to
learn a new trade when we started this series of programs we had to decide
where to do it from we decided to do it right here from the studio my purpose
will be not to get in your light any more than I can to lean over the
cameraman shoulder occasionally and say a word which may help to illuminate or
explain what is happening we have here two monitors which will serve and effect
the purpose of loudspeakers they are tied so to speak to lines that come in from
Chicago New York Washington various other places we will from time to time
show film on those monitors as well we are as newcomers to this medium rather
impressed by the whole thing impressed for example that I can turn to Don Hugh
up here and say yeah Don will you push a button and bring in the Atlantic Coast
this is camera one at a point of vantage on Governor's Island
there's an arrow right down that way there's where the big ships sail out to
Europe and all of the ports of the world thank you very much now on monitor to
may we have the Pacific Coast please hello New York this is the Golden Gate
the waters of San Francisco Bay leading out to the Pacific Ocean it's rather
hazy out here mr. Murrow thank you very much indeed gentlemen we for our part are
considerably impressed for the first time man has been able to sit at home and
look at two oceans at the same time we're impressed with the importance of
this medium we shall hope to learn to use it and not to abuse it
Ed Murrow felt I think that because television was so important and because
it had already demonstrated its grasp upon people's emotions and its power to
move them to conclusions felt that it should deal with important subjects
rather than with frivolous ones well we didn't expect much of see it now at the
beginning it began because an American company the aluminum company of America
had lost a big monopoly lawsuit and somebody said you better do something
that will improve your public relations image and they were advised to purchase
a television program in the very early days of television Murrow knew nothing
about television and I less and they said to us you take a half hour and do
anything you want 1030 Tuesday night as earlier in radio so now in television
Murrow was a pioneer and a pathfinder he pointed to a new direction for a medium
which so far had been almost wholly given up to entertainment see it now
aimed to set the nation thinking about the big problems of the day it was ahead
of the news and often it made the news by bringing issues out into the daylight
this is a document which shows an algebra and Frank Cole
inevitably it reflected the mood of suspicion fear and despair slowly
gripping America in the early 1950s mainly stemming from the ceaseless
barrage of accusations flowing from Senator Joseph McCarthy in his ruthless
anti-communist witch hunt one day in November I was coming back from lunch
head was going to lunch and we met in the lobby of the CBS building and he
stopped me and he took something out of his vest pocket and it was a little
clipping from a Detroit newspaper and on the elevator on the way upstairs I read
it a story about a young lieutenant in the Air Force Milo Rudulovic who was
about to be cashiered out of the Air Force because his sister and his father
Serbians as I remember were accused of being communists well I knew that Ed
meant that we had to investigate that story we propose to examine in so far as
we can the case of lieutenant Rudulovic force does not question my loyalty in
the least they have reiterated that on several occasions they have presented me
with allegations against my sister and father that they have to the to the
effect that my sister and dad have taken have read some what I now called
subversive newspapers and that my sister and father activities are
questionable anybody that is labeled with a security risk in these days
especially in physics or meteorology simply won't be able to find employment
in his field of work in other words I believe that if I am labeled a security
risk if the Air Force won't have me I asked the question who else will the
Air Force refused to cooperate with the program and indeed Murrow received some
subtle but clear indications of high displeasure but read Dulovich's father
and sister took part and at the end exercising his editorial privilege
Murrow showed clearly where he stood we believe that the Sun shall not bear the
inequity of the father even though that inequity be proved and in this case it
was not but we believe too that this case illustrates the urgent need for
the armed forces to communicate more fully than they have so far done the
procedures and regulations to be followed in attempting to protect the
national security and the rights of the individual at the same time whatever
happens in this whole area of the relationship between the individual in
the state we will do it ourselves it cannot be blamed upon Malenkov or
Mao Tse Tung or even our allies and it seems to us that is to Fred Friendly and
myself that this is a subject that should be argued about endlessly the
press reaction was heartening the New York Times called it fine reporting
unafraid perceptive mature everyone connected with the program can be proud
the reaction of the redoublovich broadcast was more than it had hoped for it
was partly the product of television partly the fact that for the first time
television could be used as a piece of crusading journalism any man who has
been given the honor of being promoted to general and who says I will protect
another general who protects communists is not fit to wear that uniform general
by 1954 McCarthy was exploiting his position as chairman of Senate hearings
to browbeat even very distinguished witnesses McCarthyism was incredible
emotional upsurge in this country Joe McCarthy was on that radio he was on
there what was then they limited resources of television but he was in
the press every day with these charges his methodology was one of constant
attack doubt and suspicion half truths innuendos and occasionally getting a
hold of a of an individual or an article or a piece of information that seemed to
indicate that someone had fallen prey to communist propaganda or that you were a
tool of the communists or you were an agent of the Communist Party we set our
course to do a half hour examination of Joseph McCarthy Murrow was convinced that
we couldn't do it with a lot of speech making we had to do it on his record he
came to me and said he had taken this he made this program and wanted me to see
it after the redoula vich program and their public reaction to that one and
the fact that Milo Redoula vich was freed freed but giving back his
commission we went ahead full steam when he announced we're going ahead with it
I'd the coal shivers really ran up and down my spine we must have shot hundreds
of thousands of feet of film of McCarthy in Wisconsin where he lived in
California in Philadelphia in New York in Washington we were always there I
knew that that almost anything could happen as a result of it I said look
this program is going to have impact beyond anything ever done and the one
who's going to be attacked is going to be Murrow but any one of us that is
vulnerable is going to have his history used to hurt Murrow and CBS is there
anyone in this room who in their past has done anything that could be used to
hurt it one fellow said his wife had once been a member of the Communist
League but they were divorced we didn't think that was a problem somebody else
said he had once changed his name somebody else said this and then Murrow
said something that I'll never forget he said you know the terror is right here
in this room let's go good evening tonight see it now devotes its entire
half hour to a report on Senator Joseph R McCarthy told mainly in his own words
and pictures because the report on Senator McCarthy is by definition
controversial we want to say exactly what we mean to say and I request your
permission to read from script whatever remarks Murrow and friendly may make if
the senator feels that we have done violence to his words or pictures and
desires so to speak to answer himself an opportunity will be afforded him on this
program our working thesis tonight is this quotation if this fight against
communism is made a fight between America's two great political parties
the American people know that one of these parties will be destroyed and the
Republic cannot endure very long as a one-party system we applaud that
statement and we think Senator McCarthy ought to he said it 17 months ago in
Milwaukee the American people realize that this cannot be made a fight between
America's two great political parties if this fight against communism is made a
fighting in America's two great political parties the American people
know that one of those parties will be destroyed and the Republic can't endure
very long as a one-party system but on February 4th 1954 Senator McCarthy spoke
of one party's treason this was Charleston West Virginia where there were
no cameras running it was recorded on tape the issue between Republicans and
Democrats is clearly drawn it has been deliberately drawn by those of an in
charge of 20 years of treason now a sample of an investigation the witness
was Reed Harris for many years a civil servant in the State Department
directing the Information Service Harris was accused of helping the
communistic cause by curtailing some broadcasts to Israel you attended
Columbia University in the early 30s I did mr. chairman but you speak a little
louder sir I did mr. chairman and were you expelled from Columbia I was
suspended from classes on April 1st 1932 I was later reinstated and I resigned
from the University when you resigned from University did a civil civil
liberties Union provide you with an attorney at that time I had many office
of attorneys and one of those was from the American Civil Liberties Union yes
the question is did the Civil Liberties Union supply you with an attorney they
did supply an attorney the answer is yes the answer is yes you know the Civil
Liberties Union has been listed as a front for and doing the work of the
Communist Party mr. chairman this was 1932 yeah I know that's my 1932 do you
know that they since have been listed as a front for and doing the work of the
Communist Party I do not know that they have been listed so sir you know you
don't know they have enlisted I have heard that mention and the Reed Harris
shearing demonstrates one of the senator's techniques twice he said the
American Civil Liberties Union was listed as a subversive front the Attorney
General's list does not and has never listed the ACLU as subversive nor does
the FBI or any other federal government agency and the American Civil Liberties
Union holds in its files letters of commendation from President Truman
President Eisenhower and General MacArthur no one familiar with the
history of his country can deny that congressional committees are useful it
is necessary to investigate before legislating but the line between
investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior senator from
Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly his primary achievement has been in
confusing the public mind as between the internal and the external threats of
communism we must not confuse dissent with this loyalty we must remember
always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence
and due process of law we will not walk in fear one of another we will not be
driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our
doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men not from men
who feared to write to speak to associate and to defend the causes that
were for the moment unpopular this is no time for men who oppose Senator
McCarthy's methods to keep silent or for those who approve we can deny our
heritage in our history but we cannot escape responsibility for the result
there is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities
as a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age we proclaim
ourselves as indeed we are the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to
exist in the world but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home
the actions of the junior senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay
amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies and
whose fault is that not really his he didn't create this situation of fear he
merely exploited it and rather successfully Cassius was right the fault
dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves good night and good luck I was
in New York then and a couple of days after the program Ed Murrow and I walked
together down Fifth Avenue of course we'd only gone a few yards along the
pavement here in Fifth Avenue before it was recognized and then in the most
incredible way people of all kinds began crowding around him shaking his hand
applauding him patting him on the back saying what a magnificent program it was
and then the word somehow rather got across the road and people came tearing
across the street and finally we had such a crowd here on the pavement that
the whole place was jammed with people we had to get a taxi to get aid out of
it four weeks later McCarthy replied with more bluster and attack ordinarily
ordinarily I would not take time out from the important work at hand to answer
Murrow however in this case I feel justified in doing so because Murrow is
the symbol the leader and the cleverest of the jackal pack which is always found
at the throat of anyone who dares to expose individual communist and traitors
Paley suggested what Murrow's last word on the subject should be when the record
is finally written as it will be one day it will answer the question who has helped
the communist cause and who has served his country better
senator McCarthy I would like to be remembered if at all by the answer to
that question the television actually had in a sense made Joe McCarthy I mean
the fact that Joe McCarthy could use television as he did with the with the
the announcements that he would make with the attack that he would make with
the the dynamism of his attack and all at once that same instrument which
spread I think the poison all at once came in and it thrust it all out
television was at its finest hour as a great educational instrument as an
investigative reporter as someone has put it that came of age it proved itself
the impact of the McCarthy episode may be blunted today in the light of events
like Watergate and the CIA investigations today investigative
journalism on television has become commonplace but 22 years ago it was a
towering landmark in the history of broadcasting after the McCarthy program
it was clear Murrow wasn't afraid of men in high places but he also respected
them for he was well aware of the responsibilities they faced he brought
just about all of the important statesmen of the day into the homes of
America narrow of India Ben Gurion of Israel NASA of Egypt even communist
leaders like Tito of Yugoslavia and Chu and Lai of China even though the
tobacco industry was a major source of advertising revenue for CBS and though
Murrow himself was a heavy smoker see it now did several reports on lung cancer
and smoking years before it became a common topic we present a report by
scientists on the relationship if any between cigarette smoking and lung
cancer we obviously accept responsibility for the editing but the
facts will be presented by scientists who are preeminent in their Murrow style
was tough and penetrating but there was a lighter side to him too even in dealing
with world leaders like former President Truman residents and we could have one
for two hours let's say on film which would you choose Andrew Jackson Andrew
Jackson that's correct well let's go inside and see what Harry S Truman has
to say about his almost eight years in the White House well we get some salty
things from old Andy one of his favorite interviews was with a tart-tongued
American who was not overly impressed by the name Murrow Admiral Hyman Rickover
who developed the nuclear submarine well Admiral Rickover we've been talking
about private contractors labor education almost everything else what do you think
is the most important thing to be undertaken at this time you're looking
for easy solutions the trouble with you is you want easy answers but you don't
know the proper questions all right you go ahead and phrase the question and then
phrase the answer perhaps the question should be what should be the role of
educated or intellectual people in the United States now does that sound like a
better question that's a fine question on the answer the answer is this we give a
great deal of service of look we give a great deal of lip service to be educated
but we don't really pay attention to them we always listen to the so-called
hard-headed people I don't know by that what they mean that their heads are
really hard or whether they think straight I've never been able to figure
that out I think there would be a lot better off if we listen to some of these
so-called eggheads last-minute reports from Shipping Port indicate that the
Admiral's reactor may go critical sometime in the next few days the Admiral
of course went critical several years ago at the time of this interview dr. J
Robert Oppenheimer was considered too controversial for most people to touch
Murl thought otherwise is it true that the humans have already discovered a
method of destroying humanity well I suppose that really has always been true
you could always beat everybody to death you mean to do it by inadvertence yes not
quite not quite you can certainly destroy enough of humanity so that only
the greatest act of faith can persuade you that what's left will be human
Murl also enjoyed meeting writers artists and musicians whose work was
deeply rooted in the American tradition like fellow North Carolinian Carl
Sandberg
now tell me would you rather be remembered as a poet a biographer a
historian or what I'd rather be known as a man who says what I need mainly is
three things in life possibly four to be out of jail
to eat regular to get what I write printed and then a little love at home
and a little outside this is the signature of an American original Anna
Mary Robertson Moses Murrow had a knack for getting people to relax and show
their human side have you decided yet what picture you're going to paint next
grandma Moses no I haven't a family won't try and get into something
different than what I have been doing what sort of thing have you decided more
modern I've been inclined to to paint all things I suppose cuz I'm old or old
enough to now go modern but what are you going to do for the next 20 years
grandma Moses I'm going up yeah this is another American original Louis Satchmo
Armstrong born in New Orleans July 4th 1900
Louie is there any relationship between boogie woogie and gut bucket oh I don't
think so mr. Moro they both read the medical did that come out of me
yeah that's fine even though Murrow's first love was finding and reporting the
truth he is most remembered by television viewers for his program
person-to-person a weekly entertainment show that took cameras into the homes of
famous people person-to-person was one of the most popular shows of its time
having celebrities show you around their homes appeal to the audience and Murrow's
casual style made most of the guests comfortable even with an army of
technicians and equipment in their houses have you opened all your wedding gifts
Washington we just have a couple back here
aha I wonder if you would show us around your apartment a bit certainly well fine
tomorrow
this I remember when you were over in England and I thought you might remember
this picture that was taken when my family were all over there in 1939 when
my father was an ambassador I remember it very well there he is in the center
isn't it yes that's right and I have my eight brothers and sisters that's almost
the last time we were all taken together and brings back happy memories more
people watched person-to-person than see it now was this where Murrow's relations
with CBS and Paley were to change was I disturbed from time to time and annoyed
and did we have bitter wrangles about some of the things that happened yes part
of my job and I didn't run away from it recognized it more so I think was
friendly than with the Murrow it's a very difficult to have a intense
controversy with Murrow he was he's tight and very unemotional
everything was understated whereas friendly who was a you know a man of
great vigor loved to shout and carry on and it's easier to argue and have you
know a kind of dual verbal deal with someone like that I think it was
inevitable though that as airtime went from costing fifteen thousand dollars
for a half hour which was the case of see it now to a time where minutes in
prime time cost fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars for a minute six
minutes in an hour that the kind of programming that Ed did so well would be
crowded out so in 1958 see it now Murrow's primary series died although a
leading critic had described it as televisions most brilliant most
decorated most imaginative most courageous and most important program
Murrow understandably disheartened took a year's leave to relax to think to
travel and to make occasional speeches attacking the growing commercialization
of broadcasting
after his years sabbatical Murrow returned to television on CBS reports a
new prestigious documentary series to which he occasionally contributed one
program stirred him deeply it was a polemic on the subject of America's
treatment of its migrant farm workers the harvest of shame the question posed
by thoughtful men is must the two to three million migrants who helped feed
their fellow Americans work travel and live under conditions that wrong the
dignity of man this happened in the United States in 1960 a line of humans
waiting for a ration of tinned goods milk and bread the Secretary of Labor
says for the rest of my life in or out of office I propose to do something for
them a hardened a newspaper man says for the rest of my life I will do what
little I can to help the migrants have no lobby only an enlightened aroused and
perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants the people
you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables they
do not have the strength to influence legislation maybe we do good night and
good luck harvest of shame was his last television program 1961 President
Kennedy chose Ed Murrow to join his administration as director of the United
States Information Agency in a closed-circuit broadcast to his
colleagues at CBS Murrow said goodbye and for the first time in 25 years of
broadcasting Murrow's command of the medium was lost to his emotions and I
would think it's fair and honest to say that some part of my heart
I will stay with CBS I am grateful to the management of CBS for releasing me
grateful to the affiliates who have carried what we have done although not
always approving grateful particularly for the friendship of my colleagues and
superiors and CBS reports viewing audience is now about to be increased by
one and I wish you all good luck and good night
many people were caught off guard by his acceptance of the job with the USIA not
only because he had often exposed the government's flaws but because he took a
sharp cut in pay but one colleague understood and had a very strong sense of
obligation to his country which really was why his broadcasts were so good and
to him I think the USIA job was in a sense an extension of carrying out these
obligations he felt in a somewhat different sphere so I wasn't surprised
no Murrow's duty was to promote America's image abroad he learned that
the BBC was about to show Harvest of Shame and did something as a member of
government that he admitted would have appalled Murrow the broadcast journalist
he asked the BBC not to show Harvest of Shame as a personal favor I don't think
I'd ever heard of this particular one heard the name Harvest of Shame until I
got a transatlantic telephone call from Ed Murrow in which he asked I thought
was some embarrassment whether it would be possible for us not to show this
program after all as he had just moved from his CBS job to becoming a director
of the United States Information Agency I said I sensed this embarrassment I
also felt and I feel pretty sure I'm right that it never really believed that
I'd say yes in fact I said no we couldn't cancel the program I tried to
put it in as helpful a way to it as possible by saying that it was after all
being shown the next day or the day after at any rate it was very shortly
beforehand it had been given publicity and it would make things very awkward to
cancel it at such short notice it was an embarrassing episode that showed Murrow
to be human and capable of an error in judgment two years later in London
Murrow was questioned about his job with the USIA and Harvest of Shame was one of
the topics there is an old tradition of social inquiry of muck breaking of
expose in the United States and it is a healthy one I felt that the showing of
that particular film abroad would have created a false impression of migrant
labor in the United States if I were to describe you as a portrait and game
keeper a reporter who has now become an agent of the government I mean this would
be fair perhaps but do you find it very embarrassing to be in this position no
not at all this is a curious concept that when one who has spent most of his
life in the field of journalism suddenly goes to work for his government that
somehow his standards change that he is a little bit unclean and dishonest I am
exaggerating you see but I take the implication of your question and I must
tell you that in the last two years running all instruments of communication
outgoing from the United States I have had no more kills or stops or inhibitions
than I had when I was working in the private sector of communications
because we operate under a presidential mandate which says that we report what
happens in the United States warts and all and it is for that reason that we
are frequently criticized because we do report some of the more unfavorable and
unsavory aspects of our society he did well in the USIA but his term of office
was short lung cancer struck him down and President Johnson regretfully
accepted his resignation awarding him America's highest honor the Medal of
Freedom in 1965 the Queen of England showed that her people had not forgotten
what Murrow had done for them during the war by bestowing an honorary knighthood
on him a few weeks later at the age of 57 Edward R. Murrow died
Ed Murrow was no God he was a great journalist and a great human being but
he smoked too much and he drove his car too fast and he drove himself too hard
and he was too much of a soft touch for people who needed help and he made his
mistakes like all of us do but he understood the grammar of broadcast
journalism and of his people and of war and peace and man's inhumanity to man
whether it was in a Nazi concentration camp or whether it was in harvest of
shame the migrants and he was able to communicate that when Ed Murrow came on
radio and television this nation listened and he knew that and therefore it
made him even more responsible I think he felt a great sense of responsibility
to be the authentic to be authentic to be fair and yet he also realized that he
had a responsibility as a citizen to separate what was the news from the
editorial comment and boy would he let you have it I think one should almost
regard him as the patron saint of the broadcasting profession
communication Ed Murrow used to quote is what makes us men his memory remains
because he was one of the great communicators of his century but even
more because of his concern that broadcasting should reach its full
potential unfettered by narrowness blindness pettiness selfishness a
patron saint perhaps certainly a foremost and ever vigilant keeper of
broadcasting's conscience we should remember these words Murrow once spoke
about the industry he knew so well television it can teach it can
illuminate it can even inspire but only to the extent that we are determined to
use it to those ends otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box
Edward R. Murrow along with other great CBS journalists getting their start in
broadcasting music concerts from Europe prior to World War two we're off to
Austria for a music concert in the preparations of the Salzburg Festival
Herbert von Karajan gives us a guided tour in part next simulcast with KQED FM
and then a glimpse of what Bay Area filmmakers and videographers are doing
on independent eye that'll be this evening around about 1130 here on KQ