• Born: 25 April 1908
• Birthplace: Polecat Creek, North Carolina
• Died: 27 April 1965 (lung cancer)
• Best Known As: World War II CBS newsman and host of TV's See It Now

Three words -- "This is London" -- made Edward R. Murrow the most dashing American radio correspondent of World War II. Murrow used the phrase to open his broadcasts from the city's rooftops during the bombing raids of the Battle of Britain in 1939. By the end of the war the dark, lean and intense Murrow had become the prototype of the modern globe-trotting, trenchcoat-wearing newsman. Murrow graduated from Washington State in 1930 and took a job with CBS in 1935, becoming head of the network's European bureau two years later. During the war he reported from all over Europe and trained a cadre of CBS broadcasters, often called "Murrow's Boys," which included future network news anchors Howard K. Smith and Eric Sevareid. In 1950 Murrow began to produce and narrate the radio documentary program Hear It Now (1950-51), which moved to television as See It Now (1951-58). This was the program where Murrow cemented his legend as a fearless and frank reporter. His most famous See It Now broadcast, a broadside against Senator Joe McCarthy , aired on 9 March 1954 and is generally credited with helping begin McCarthy's slide from power. His 1960 report on American migrant workers, Harvest of Shame, is also a landmark in documentary news. In 1961 president John F. Kennedy appointed Murrow head of the U.S. Information Agency. Always a heavy smoker, Murrow was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1964 and died the next year.

Murrow married the former Janet Brewster in 1934; their only child, Charles Casey, was born in London in 1945... Murrow won nine Emmy Awards for broadcast excellence during his career... Murrow was played by actor David Strathairn in Good Night and Good Luck, the 2005 film directed by George Clooney. Clooney also played Murrow's longtime colleague and producer, Fred Friendly... Murrow's birthplace is usually described as "near Polecat Creek," which itself is near Greensboro, North Carolina.

Edward Roscoe Murrow (1908-1965), American radio and television news broadcaster, pioneered in developing journalism and political and social commentary for the mass media.

Edward R. Murrow was born Egbert R. Murrow on Polecat Creek near Greensboro, N.C., on April 25, 1908. The family moved in 1913, and Murrow grew up in Washington state. He worked in logging camps during vacations from Washington State College, changing his first name in the process.

Murrow began his career in international student exchange, but after his marriage to Janet Huntington Brewster he joined the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1935 as director of talks. In 1937 he went to London to arrange speeches and concerts for the American radio network. However, in 1938, he was plunged into news broadcasting when Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, and he continued to broadcast throughout World War II. The German "blitz" against London in 1940 made Murrow's the best-known American radio voice from overseas, identified by his incisive personal reporting from rooftops and airfields and his social and political probing behind the wartime headlines. After America entered the war, Murrow won renown for his broadcasts describing a bombing raid against Berlin, the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp, and the American capture of Leipzig.

Returning to the United States after the war, Murrow inaugurated television journalism-in-depth in 1951 with the weekly program "See It Now." It examined political and social issues and in 1954 challenged the nation's most feared demagogue at that time, Senator Joseph McCarthy. "See It Now" stirred controversy as it explored various national concerns, and Murrow ranged the world to film news and interview political figures. With his good looks and forceful personality, he became a well-known public figure in his own right, especially after starting another television program, "Person to Person," which brought him electronically into the homes of celebrities.

But the widening mass nature of television with its increasing commercialism and costs put the emphasis on entertainment programs that won audience ratings. Murrow's brand of purposeful news broadcasting found less and less time on the air. A notable speech to the broadcasting industry in 1958 appealling for better programs found little response. Murrow left broadcasting in 1961 to become director of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). He restored the USIA's morale and effectiveness, damaged in the McCarthy years, but found conflict between his role as government propagandist and his independent journalistic past. Ill health compelled his resignation, and he died on April 27, 1965.

Further Reading

A collection of Murrow's wartime broadcasts is his This Is London (1941). A much wider range of his radio and television broadcasts is provided by Edward Bliss, Jr., ed., In Search of Light (1967). Murrow's associate Fred W. Friendly wrote about him in Due to Circumstances beyond Our Control (1967). Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time (1969), is a full biography.

For more information on Edward Egbert Roscoe Murrow, visit Britannica.com.

1908–65, American news broadcaster, b. Greensboro, N.C. He joined the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in 1935 and became its European director two years later, assembling and training a news staff to cover the impending war. As a CBS war correspondent (1939–45) Murrow was noted for dramatic and accurate radio broadcasts from London during the Battle of Britain. He served the network as vice president and director of public affairs (1945–47) and news analyst (1947–61), producing and broadcasting the popular television programs Person to Person and See It Now, on which in 1954 he challenged the practices of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy. Murrow was director of the U.S. Information Agency from 1961 to 1964.

Bibliography

See biographies by A. Kendrick (1969) and A. M. Sperber (1986); studies by S. Cloud and L. Olson (1996), M. Bernstein and A. Lubertozzi (2003), and B. Edwards (2004); The Edward R. Murrow Collection, (VCR, 1991; DVD, 2005).

A highly respected radio and television commentator who, during World War II, reported from London on German air raids against that city and who attacked Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s as a threat to civil liberties. Murrow also created a show that first brought television cameras into the homes of celebrities for interviews.

Quotes:

"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices -- just recognize them."

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

"Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit."

"The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer."