Murrow

Edward Murrow, the Grand Daddy of Newscasters

Playwrights adore Shakespeare, Scientists adore Newton ! But whom do newscasters adore ? Is there anybody up there who is adored by the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai and Prannoy Roy ? Yes, there is ! And he is Edward R Murrow who was born almost exactly 100 years ago (25/4/ 1908).

Our college libraries in the sixties were almost non existent and even otherwise they were more museums than libraries since all that we could do was to look at the dusty books in glass shelves. But we were lucky that we were wooed by various countries which started their own libraries in big cities. We had the British Council library and then there was the USIA – United States Information Agency – library. USIA was started by President John Kennedy to spread American values all over the globe. And Kennedy was very good at selecting the right person for the right job. He selected Edward Murrow to head the USIA . After all who knew dispersal of information better than Murrow ? According to Wikipedia Mainstream historians consider him among journalism’s greatest figures;

Murrow was one of the few who really exploited the radio. His dispatches to the United States during the II World War were very popular. He would start his reports from UK with the words ‘ This is London’ which became the catch phrase later for all broadcasts.

With the beginning of the TV era, Murrow switched over to the new medium with ease and became a national icon. He was known for his very honest reporting of events and an in depth analysis. The 1950’s were scary years for the American liberals. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a rabble rouser, became the darling of the American right when he began a scrutiny of important Americans for their attitude towards communism .According to Wikipedia “ During this time many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies.” Scientists like Robert Oppenheimer and Linus Pauling , writers like Dashiel Hammett and Arthur Miller , entertainers like Paul Robeson and Charlie Chaplin were on McCarthy’s list. It was to the credit of Edward Murrow that he took on Murrow and totally discredited him. It is said that Murrow’s tv program was very important in bringing McCarthy down.

Murrow was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer in 1965. According to Wikipaedia, “ Upon his death, Murrow's colleague and Eric Sevaried said of him, "He was a shooting star; and we will live in his afterglow a very long time". Another colleague Walter Cronkite said of Murrow, "He's the head of the parade, he's the pinnacle of the pyramid. He led the way." “

It was said sometime ago that Virender Sehwag did not know at all about the Vinoo Mankad. One hopes that the present day newscasters know at least something about Edward Murrow and more importantly emulate him.

(My interest in him stems from the fact that my father was a journalist)