Journalist-edward r. murrow: the most distinguished figure in broadcast journalism in the u.s. is edward r. murrow. he developed many of the techniques associated with news gathering for broadcast. his integrity, and his willingness to go up against the powers that be was a mark of his career. he influenced public opinion and even policy by exposing the abuses of power in the government.edward r. murrow is the most distinguished and renowned figure in the history of american broadcast journalism. he was a seminal force in the creation and development of electronic news gathering as both a craft and a profession. murrows career began at cbs in 1935 and spanned the infancy of news and public affairs programming on radio through the ascendancy of television in the 1950s, as it eventually became the nations most popular news medium. in 1961, murrow left cbs to become director of the united states information agency for the new kennedy administration. by that time, his peers were already referring to a murrow legend and tradition of courage, integrity, social responsibility, and journalistic excellence, emblematic of the highest ideals of both broadcast news and the television industry in general. more about edward r. murrowin 1937, edward r. murrow was sent by cbs to set up a network of correspondents to report on the gathering storm in europe. he assembled a group of young reporters whose names soon became household words in wartime america, among whom were william shirer, charles collingwood, bill shael, and howard k. smith. the group, which came to be known collectively as murrows boys, reported the whole of world war ii from the front lines with a courage and loyalty inspired by murrows own fearlessness. during the war murrow flew in more than twenty bombing missions over berlin, and along with bill shadel was the first allied correspondent to report the horrors from the nazi death camps.returning to america after the war, murrow was surprised to find that his overseas reports had made him a star at home. with the advent of television, murrow was approached to host a weekly program. along with his associate, fred friendly, murrow had been producing a popular radio show, hear it now. the television show was to be called see it now. joe wershba, a reporter who worked closely with murrow, remembers, neither of them knew anything about film making or television. all they knew was they wanted to do stories. important stories. television was in its infancy and murrow and friendly had to learn the process of filmmaking and the primitive television equipment on the job.murrows love of common america led him to seek out stories of ordinary people. he presented their stories in such a way that they often became powerful commentaries on political or social issues. see it now consistently broke new ground in the burgeoning field of television journalism. in 1953, murrow made the decision to investigate the case of milo radulovich. radulovich had been discharged from the air force on the grounds that his mother and sister were communist sympathizers. the program outlined the elements of the case, casting doubt on the air forces decision, and within a short while, milo radulovich had been reinstated. this one edition of see it now marked a change in the face of american journalism and a new age in american politics.soon after the milo radulovich program aired, it was learned that senator joseph mccarthy was preparing an attack on murrow. as it happened, murrow himself had been collecting material about mccarthy and his senate investigating committee for several years, and he began assembling the program. broadcast on march 9, 1954, the program, composed almost entirely of mccarthys own words and pictures, was a damning portrait of a fanatic. mccarthy demanded a chance to respond, but his rebuttal, in which he referred to murrow as the leader of the jackal pack, only sealed his fate. the combination of the programs timing and its persuasive power broke the senators hold over the nation. the entire fiasco, however, caused a rift with cbs, and they decided to discontinue see it now.
