VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.  Today, we tell the story of Edward R. Murrow, a famous radio and television broadcaster.  He helped create and develop modern news broadcasting.

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VOICE ONE:

Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born in nineteen-oh-eight in the state of North Carolina.  His parents lived on a farm in an area called Polecat Creek.  The Murrows were members of the Quakers, a religious group known for its humanitarian activities and opposition to war.  When he was a boy, the Murrow family moved across the country.  They settled in the western state of Washington, near the border with Canada. 

VOICE TWO:

In college, Egbert Murrow changed his name to Edward.  He completed his college education at Washington State College in nineteen thirty. Edward was active in college politics.  He served as president of the National Student Federation.  He organized debates and other events for the student organization.  He also traveled throughout the United States and Europe. 

Ed Murrow joined the Institute of International Education in nineteen thirty-two.  He served as assistant director of the group.  During this period, he married a young woman he had met at a student conference.  Her name was Janet Brewster.  They later had one child, a son.

VOICE ONE:

Edward R. Murrow accepted a job with the Columbia Broadcasting System in nineteen thirty-five.  His job was to get famous people to speak on CBS radio programs. Two years later, Murrow was named director of the CBS European office and moved to London, England.  His job was to get European officials and experts to provide comments for CBS broadcasts.  Murrow was twenty-nine years old and the company’s only representative in Europe.

VOICE TWO:

The situation in Europe was becoming tense.  Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had come to power in Germany.  Up until that time, radio news in the United States was mostly opinions, or commentary.  CBS officials were concerned about permitting news broadcasts by reporters.

Murrow offered a job to William L. Shirer, a newspaper reporter.  The two men wanted to do something different.  They wanted to present radio reports about what they had seen and heard.

In March, nineteen thirty-eight, the two men made radio broadcasting history.  They produced a thirty-minute broadcast to report on the seizure of Austria by Nazi Germany.  That meant getting people in Berlin and other European capitals to comment on the news story.

Murrow traveled to Vienna to report on Nazi forces entering the Austrian capital.  The broadcast also included reports from London, Berlin, Paris, France and Rome, Italy.  It was a huge success.

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VOICE ONE:

Murrow returned to London and continued his broadcasts as World War Two started.  He opened the reports with the words, “This is London.”  Murrow was an excellent reporter who chose his words with great skill.  His reports seemed to bring the war home to Americans.

For example, he described the Battle of Britain as he saw and experienced it.  In some of his reports, listeners could hear the sound of bomb explosions or air raid warnings.  Once, Murrow broadcast from the top of a building and described what he saw.  Here is part of one report from August thirty-first, nineteen thirty-nine.  Murrow describes plans by British officials to move children away from coastal areas:

EDWARD R. MURROW :

 "School children will be taken by their teachers to homes in safer districts where they will be housed by people who have already offered to receive them and look after them.  All parents of school children are strongly urged to let their children go.  Parents will be told where their children are as soon as they reach their new homes."

VOICE TWO:

Murrow organized a team of reporters whose names would become well known to American listeners.  They included Charles Collingwood, Robert Trout, Eric Severeid, and Howard K. Smith.  The team had eleven members.  They were called “the Murrow boys.”  They reported news from the major European capitals.  Their reports were heard on the CBS radio program “World News Roundup.”  These men established the traditions of broadcast journalism.

Most of the reporters had worked for newspapers or magazines.  They had learned to work quickly and clearly, much needed qualities in radio.  The Murrow boys were to have a powerful effect on American broadcasting for years to come.

Edward R. Murrow took his listeners places they had never been.  He let them experience things they could not imagine. For example, after World War Two, he was among the first Allied reporters to visit the Buchenwald prison camp operated by the Nazis in Germany during the war.  This is how he described the prisoners there:

EDWARD R. MURROW:

“As we walked into the courtyard, a man fell dead.  Two others, they must have been over sixty, were crawling toward the latrine.  I saw it, but will not describe it.  In another part of the camp, they showed me the children, hundreds of them.  Some were only six.  One rolled up his sleeve and showed me his number.  It was tattooed on his arm.”

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VOICE ONE:

Murrow was famous when he returned home to the United States after the war.  His work in Europe guaranteed him a place in the history of news reporting.  He was appointed vice president of News at CBS in nineteen forty-six.  However, he resigned from the position the following year and returned to broadcasting.

Murrow recorded a series of record albums with a producer, Fred Friendly.  The series was called “I Can Hear It Now.”  These programs presented historical events through recordings of speeches and news broadcasts.  Later, Murrow and Friendly developed a similar weekly radio show.  It was called “Hear It Now.”

VOICE TWO:

In the United States, the rise of television in the nineteen fifties ended the period called the Golden Age of Radio Broadcasting.  Most of the popular shows disappeared from radio. More and more people started watching television.  So Ed Murrow and his boys moved to television.  He joined with Fred Friendly to create the series “See It Now.”  This show lasted from nineteen fifty-one to nineteen fifty-eight.  The first “See It Now” showed the first television pictures broadcast from both coasts.  It showed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

In one program, “See It Now” examined accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy.  He had accused government officials of being supporters or members of the Communist Party.  The program showed that Senator McCarthy had no real evidence for the accusations.  Some people say the program helped to end the senator’s hunt for Communists.  Experts say the program was important in the history of television.

Other broadcasts on “See It Now” concerned important issues of race, war and government dishonesty.

VOICE ONE:

Murrow also started another television show called “Person to Person.”  He spoke with famous people in their homes.  One program visited Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The show also visited actress Marilyn Monroe, actor Marlon Brando and Senator John F. Kennedy.

Ed Murrow also produced a number of special investigative programs for CBS.  One such program was called “Harvest of Shame.”  It showed the hard lives and poor living conditions of farm workers who move from place to place.  Some people say this broadcast was so powerful that it influenced American lawmakers to pass measures to protect these migrant workers. 

VOICE TWO:

Murrow’s reporting and choice of subjects often led to disputes with his supervisors at CBS.  After John F.Kennedy was elected president, he asked the newsman to lead the United States Information Agency.  Murrow served as the agency’s director from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen sixty-four.  Then he retired from the job.  Murrow was sick with lung cancer.  He had smoked cigarettes for much of his life.  He died in nineteen sixty-five at his farm in Pawling, New York.  He was fifty-seven years old.

By the time he died, Murrow had won all of the top awards given to reporters.  He also received honors from five colleges.  President Lyndon Johnson gave him the Medal of Freedom.  That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen.

Today, Edward R. Murrow is remembered for his influence on broadcasting and the quality of his reporting.  Former CBS chairman William Paley once said Murrow was a man made for his time and work.  Paley called him a student, a thinker and, at heart, a poet of mankind.  As a result, he said, Murrow was a great reporter.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer.  I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember.  Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

知识扩展：默罗（Edward R. Murrow）的介绍——

爱德华·默罗(Edward R.Murrow)，美国广播新闻界的一代宗师，新闻广播史上的著名人物，CBS的著名播音员。曾任VOA台长、后任NBC新闻评论员并获普利策奖的约翰·钱塞勒对其做出这样的评价：“默罗是个很有才干的人，他天生具有新闻报道的灵感和历史感，又是才华出众的作家。每一代人中都会有一些出色的人才，他们完美地集人格、才干和毅力于一身。”

“默罗是CBS的王牌评论员。不可否认的是，正是这位“像艾森豪威尔一样的英雄和人物”，在那个为意识形态疯颠的时代，凭借自己的赤子之心与麦卡锡主义斗智斗勇，捍卫了美国媒体的尊严。上世纪40年代末期的美国，对广播的政治压力已经膨胀起来。麦卡锡主义出现在广播网中，列出了黑名单，从政治上对广播公司和赞助人施加压力。“这是大怯懦时期，许多有才干的人销声匿迹”（哈伯斯塔姆）。而默罗本人，这个“自由言论和第一修正案的支持者，一个典型的政治上的温和派”，在不知不觉中花了越来越多的时间和精力，努力保护他受到右派攻击和扣上红帽子的工作人员。

二战后，当默罗从“现在请听”（Hear It Now）转到“现在请看”（See It Now）节目时，和许多人一样，一开始默罗对电视持怀疑态度。因为电视“远离纸墨的纯洁，接近表演的天地。”但是，默罗成功地促成了这场转变——“只是默罗本人开始经常在电视上露面之后，这些人才开始尊重电视”。所幸在美国，即使是在麦卡锡主义流行时，媒体也没有沦为政治、国会、最高法院配合行动的“政府的第四部门”，通过《现在请看》这个节目，“在平坦大地上赫然耸立”的默罗使麦卡锡主义原形毕露。如黙罗所说，我们不是心怀恐惧的人的后裔，不是来自于不敢写，不敢说，不敢交往，不敢保卫尚不普及的事业的人的后裔，我们不能让恐惧驱赶理性，一面在国外捍卫自由，一面却在国内抛弃自由。”