Edward R. Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 - April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States. A pioneer of television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. (Click here for full Wikipedia article.)
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
A satellite has no conscience.
Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation.
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
During the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices- just recognize them.
If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or a quiz show would be more profitable.
Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were.
The fact that your voice is amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other does not confer upon you greater wisdom or understanding than you possessed when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.
The only thing that counts is the right to know, to speak, to think- that, and the sanctity of the courts. Otherwise it's not America.
The politician is... trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him.
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.
This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.
We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks- that's show business.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men.
When politicians complain that TV turns proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.
When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
Categories: Edward R. Murrow, Quotes of the day
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