*When he was six, his family moved to Blanchard, Washington to look for a more prosperous lifestyle in the lumber business.
*When he came of age, Murrow began a college career that would mold him into an amazing journalist.
*He attended, Leland Stanford University, the University of Washington, and Washington State College, and by the time he graduated, he had changed his name from Egburt Roscoe Murrow to Edward R Murrow.
*Murrow had a very successful college career, and was a member of many school organizations, including the class president. He majored in speech, and was very influenced by a severely crippled speech instructor named Ida Leu Anderson. Murrow would keep in contact with her throughout his life until the day she died and she was known for calling Murrow her masterpiece.
*After graduation, Murrow was elected president of the student organization, which allowed him to travel to universities all over the country and in Europe. During this time, he established a student travel Bureau and arranged for international student debates. He was even able to recruit Albert Einstein to appear on a program on CBS.
*Murrow met Janet Brewster while traveling to New Orleans for a conference. She was a student from Middletown, Connecticut, and was attending the same conference. They fell in love and were married in 1934 and had one son, Charles Casey
*In 1935, Murrow joined CBS as the director of talks but was promoted as chief of the European Bureau two years later in London. He was supposed to arrange cultural talks but World War II but changed that role to reporting.
*He hired a group of talented men that would help him with his broadcasts during the wartime. These men would be named, “Murrow Boys,” and would later become successful broadcasters. They included, Eric Secaried, Charles Collingwood, and Howard K. Smith, among many others.
*Murrow would broadcast rich and expressive broadcasts from the rooftops in the Battle of Britain in 1939. Here, he frequently popularized democratic ideals such as free speech and individual rights.
*Murrow not only gave a wonderful descriptive broadcast of the war, but experienced it himself.
*His first report was in Vienna in 1938 to report on the entrance of the Nazis into the Austrian capital. It was in this report that the phrase “This is London” became his hallmark.
*Murrow saw an opportunity for radio to bring events right into America’s homes. He was known for his cogent point-of-view, but also for his clipped, slow but deliberate style of speaking which he seemed to pick up from his Quaker mother. Murrow also set the trend for broadcast journalism for many years to follow.
*During the Battle of Britain, Murrow was known for his amazing reporting that were punctuated by the sounds of air raid sirens or bomb explosions.
*His reports on the Holocaust were equally spellbinding. When he visited one of the camps at Buchenwald, he presented a vivid picture of the darker side of humanity.
*When the war was over, he was promoted to Vice President of News, Education, and Discussion programs, but later resigned and became the elected director of CBS in 1949.
*When the Korean War began, he traveled there to report the events, and presented weekly digests of news called Hear It Now. This was based on an earlier project called I Can Hear it Now, which presented history through recorded speeches and news broadcasts of the featured event.
*Murrow reluctantly moved into the television medium. Eventually he began to see the power of television and set new standards for what the broadcast news media could accomplish.
*Murrow’s television show, See It Now, became very popular by bringing the public into unseen places such as a submerged submarine, a fighter plane during air defense exercises, and a session of the Arkansas General Assembly.
*Murrow continued to report the news in Korea, and won widespread acclaim for his manner of relating the life of the common soldier in Korea.
*Among all the programs of See It Now, perhaps the most memorable is this piece on Senator Joseph McCarthy.
*McCarthy was terrorizing America with his Communist accusations. Murrow acknowledged that there was a fine line between investigation and persecution, and called him on it during a broadcast of See It Now. After the broadcast, many felt that he helped subdue the fear that McCarthy caused and some even believed that he contributed to McCarthy’s downfall.
*Aside from See It Now, Murrow began other popular programs such as Person To Person, which was a celebrity show, where Murrow would join celebrities at their homes. He also did Small World, and CBS Reports.
*Murrow’s career at CBS began to fail with a speech he gave before the Radio and Television News Directors where he insulted the directors and put down television.
*He retired in 1961 and took control of the US Information Agency. He held that position until 1964, when he retired due to lung cancer. He was known for always having a cigarette in his hand.
*Edward R Murrow died on April 27, 1965 at the age of 57.
*Edward R Murrow will always be remembered for bringing the dramatic events of the nation into the homes of millions. He used television as a medium to include and educate the public in the movements of government and culture, and set the highest standards broadcasters of today.
Widner, F.J. (n.d.). Edward (Egburt) Roscoe Murrow. Retrieved February 11, 2002, from www.otr.com/murrow.html
Edward R. Murrow. (n.d.). North Carolina Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 11, 2002, from http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/bio/literary/murrow.htm