preview

Edward R. Murrow Analysis

Better Essays

1. Why did the public acclaim for Edward R. Murrow's World War II radio broadcasts help his controversial "Radulovich" and "McCarthy" TV programs, and How were the economic vulnerabilities of commercial TV exploited by President Lyndon B. Johnson in order to create a surprise news event that interfered with Fred Friendly's live coverage of the 1966 U.S. Senate Hearings on Vietnam?

Edward R. Murrow is a universally recognized, courageous news broadcaster who brought stories to life through radio and television programs. He developed the term “broadcast journalism,” earning creditability with his eyewitness coverage of the London bombing which gave him the public acclaim “As Kendrick noted, he was recognized as “a proficient debater, and preferred the spoken word, never having been a writing journalist” (Kendrick, p.214).
Murrow worked for CBS as an American radio news correspondent covering World War II. He experienced first hand the Blitz on London, the bombing of the city by the Germans on September 7, 1940. Late nights or early mornings, Murrow constantly broadcast in London. “‘He lived on coffee and cigarettes,’ Janet, Murrow’s wife, remembered” (Kendrick, p. 202). He …show more content…

He described to his listeners he couldn’t disclose his location due to national security concern, but he could see but couldn’t hear the guns. His listeners could hear the gun machines and bombs drop during his broadcasts. His broadcast “was made in ‘a hoarse tremulous voice that broke into sobbing at one point, under the burden of emotion, fatigue and nerve-wracking strain’” (Kendrick, p. 208). Murrow reported for months all the activity that was happening in the British Isles to American listeners (Kendrick, p.213). Murrow broadcasted from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and

Get Access