News Releases

Murrow: A Different Kind of Journalism

A panel discussion at George Washington University discusses the life and legacy of Edward R. Murrow.

On the eve of what would have been Murrow’s 100th birthday, GW convened a group that knew him well: Richard C. Hottelet, one of the original Murrow Boys, hired by Murrow in 1944; Marvin Kalb, the last correspondent personally hired at CBS News by Murrow; and the legendary newsman’s son, Casey Murrow. The panel was moderated by Michael Freedman, vice president of communications at GW and former GM for CBS Radio Network News (photo courtesy George Washington University).

The audio clips of Murrow’s early radio work covering World War II in Europe demonstrate why the New York Times once called him the finest American journalist since Benjamin Franklin, Freedman said. In his famed Buchenwald report, for instance, Murrow was the first American reporter allowed into the German concentration camp and both his writing and delivery make that one of the most poignant radio broadcasts of all time, he said.

After his visit to the camp, Freedman said, Murrow went into seclusion for several days to compose himself and work on the story. When asked if reporters today could do that, Kalb said, “Well, a reporter could do that…but we just don’t have that kind of reporting today. It’s a different kind of journalism.”

While many consider the name Murrow to be synonymous with traditional journalism values, what he did was also very cutting edge, said Casey Murrow, who is the founder of Synergy Learning International, a non-profit assisting schools and teachers. He works with students and teachers who are immersed in technology everyday and says it’s important to look back at the tools his father used. His television show Person to Person, for instance, used live remote at a time when that wasn’t really done.

Murrow had as much influence on his colleagues as he did on the profession itself, Hottelet added, but that wasn’t deliberate.

“He never really gave advice, he led by example,” Hottelet said. “It was by example that he made me a better reporter.”

Murrow’s furrowed brow, Hottelet said, made him look like a born pessimist. He was “incurably inquisitive” and not really worried about inspiring anyone. “He had a drive to tell people what was going on, an urge to inform people,” he said.

Education always had a significant place in the Murrow household, Casey said, and his father had been very proud of the work he did before joining CBS, working with foreign scholars at the Institute of International Education. “He really wanted TV and radio to be used as a teaching tool,” Casey said.

Murrow’s frustration that the medium was being wasted had been a cornerstone of his infamous “wires and lights in a box” speech, which he delivered at RTNDA’s 1958 convention in Chicago. At home, Ed and Janet Murrow shielded Casey from a lot of the drama that surrounded that speech, but he does recall his father spoke of his script as being a potential “troublemaker.”

“At least he hoped it would be a troublemaker,” Casey added.

A number of people have tried to scold broadcasters the way Murrow did, Kalb said, but “any critique of broadcast since 1958 has basically re-written his speech.”

– Stefani Blair, for RTNDA.org.