Edward R Murrow
A model for our times
Edward R Murrow was journalist who was instrumental in the development of radio and television broadcasting. He started his career as a CBS executive before a news department existed and gained popularity as a WWII war correspondent and radio and TV journalist. Originally a talent manager, he quickly found his voice as a public personality on radio and television.
Murrow’s first television program, “See It Now”, launched in 1951. The program reported on controversial issues of the time, a model for today’s 60 Minutes. This was at the height of the Red Scare whose most visible proponent was Senator Joseph McCarthy, notorious for attacking his opponents with unfounded accusations of disloyalty and subversion. To this day, McCarthyism is defined as “The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.” (ref)
In 1954 Murrow produced a special edition titled “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy” which attacked McCarthy’s deceit by shining light on his lies and contradictions. Fearing backlash, CBS did not fund the segment or allow use of the CBS logo, a disturbing foreshadowing of recent events. But in spite of CBS’s concerns, the public’s response was overwhelmingly positive and the program was instrumental in the decline of McCarthy’s career, his ultimate fall from grace, and the end of the Red Scare. In spite of this success, over time Murrow lost favor with CBS executives as commercial sponsors preferred less controversial content like game shows and Gunsmoke.
Murrow’s story is echoed in today’s political struggles. Commercial media is reluctant to upset their audience, McCarthyism is prevalent, and new communications technologies like Facebook and Twitter that promised to inform have descended into cesspools of alternative facts in search of profits.
But Murrow’s story also shows that truth and decency can break through the noise and sway public opinion. Our collective mission is to follow his path and fight for a return to truth and decency. I hope that The Murrow Project can honor his legacy and be a small part of the ultimate successful decline and fall of the MAGA movement.
We won’t go back, and when we fight we win.
The McCarthy Era was a shining example of intolerance. While tagging people as Communist, McCarthysm had the added impact of narrowing tolerance for differing opinions or shades of liberalism. We have seen the same thing in recent times by using the Liberal label in place of "Communist". Today it is often referred to as 'otherism". It is easier to identify a person as "other" when the color of their skin or their accent is obviously different, so give the McCarthy Gang the edge in degree of difficulty when comparing.
In this environment there is no tolerance for differing opinions, different looking people, or different approaches to problems. Tolerance is the basis for bipartisan problem solving. Without it we descend into a cram-down world where brute-force policy making becomes the rule.
Much like the McCarthy era needed a voice of reason and tolerance like Edward R. Murrow's. Hopefully the Murrow Project can be that voice and effectively reorient people on the heels of a hard-felt political loss.
Thank you Jim!