Summary

One in this series of seminars conducted by The Museum of Television & Radio. This seminar, presented in New York and moderated by Museum television curator Ron Simon, examines the work of pioneering broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow and the now-legendary group of young reporters he brought together in radio and television broadcasts of the 1940s and 1950s (several of whom are featured as panelists at this seminar). The panel includes the following individuals: veteran broadcast journalists Robert Trout, Larry LeSueur, Richard C. Hottelet, and Joe Wershba; and the husband-and-wife team who wrote the book, "The Murrow Boys," Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud.

Simon begins the evening with a screening of audio and video clips highlighting the work of Murrow and the panelists, including footage from the following programs, among others: "Edward R. Murrow Reporting from London" (1940); "Richard C. Hottelet Reporting from London on the D-Day Bombing Mission" (1944); and "See It Now" featuring reports from Robert Trout and Joe Wershba, as well as Murrow's famous comments on McCarthyism (1952, 1953, and 1954, respectively). The group discusses the following topics, among others: how Trout, LeSueur, and Hottelet first came to work with Murrow; Murrow's tendency to pick journalists from the low-paying UP wire service; how Murrow adapted to television when he premiered in "See It Now" in 1951; Trout's tremendous ability to ad-lib; the panelists' personal recollections of their late colleagues, including Eric Sevareid and Charles Collingwood; Murrow's poetic style, awareness of the value of silence, and "almost biblical sense of rhetoric"; Murrow's intense drive and sense of the context of history; Murrow's reports from London during World War II; and the "sheer madness" of doing television during the "See It Now" years -- with the added complications of producers, engineers, make-up, etc. Questions from the seminar audience lead to comments on the following topics among others: why Sevareid was not credited for his early attacks on Senator Joseph McCarthy; conjecture as to what Murrow thought of U.S involvement in Vietnam; Robert Trout's impressions of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt; what it was like to operate under British, German, Russian, and American censorship during World War II; what propelled Murrow to do "Person to Person" after a career in serious journalism; the role of the 1950s quiz show debacle in the conflict between Murrow and Frank Stanton, which led to Murrow's departure from CBS; and Murrow's personal struggle in the decision to come out against McCarthy.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Marc Haas and Helen Hotze Haas Foundation, 1996.