Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow sits in front of his favorite cigarette lighter Murrow: TV's First Traitor The long, sordid past of journalism is cluttered with troublemakers who have gone on to enjoy scores of undeserved praise in the eyes of history. The formula is the same: Target some perfectly legitimate institution and then, for no reason other than to further your own ends, attempt to bring down that institution through whiny, sensationalistic reporting. And who are these so-called heroes? Lincoln Steffens? Please. The man didn't even bother to hide the fact that he was a Communist, famously saying of the Soviet Union: "I have seen the future, and it works!" Guess what, Steff? I look at the 'future,' and all I see are a demolished wall and a couple of mummies in glass cases in Moscow. Jackass. Nellie Bly is famous for 'pretending' to be a crazy woman to gain access to a mental institution, thereafter exposing some purported scandal and denying hundreds if not thousands of New York women access to quality psychiatric care. Jacob Riis, who peddled in the pseudoscience of camera-using and class warfare, wrote "How the Other Half Lives," which made it sound like the poor in America necessarily had to be poor, ignoring the country's well deserved reputation as the Land of Opportunity and overlooking the laziness and questionable immigration status of those whose cause he championed. Head and shoulders above all of these false idols, however, is Edward R. Murrow. Murrow, who was the subject of a recent motion picture, is credited with starting the avalanche that would eventually lead to the fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a man whose only "crime" was loving his country too much.1 Murrow first became famous during World War II, when he broadcast war news from London over the radio. People who knew him well said not being able to transmit British military secrets to the Germans "drove him crazy." "Mr. Murrow was constantly distraught," said Alfred Hutchinson, who may have been a waiter in London in the 1940's. "I remember one conversation clearly. 'Al,' he said, 'What am I doing? Have I betrayed the Fuhrer?' I tried to reassure him, but he was inconsolable." Hutchinson said that Murrow then called a young child over and told him the truth about Santa Claus.2 By the 1950's, when McCarthy was leading his crusade to rid the United States Government of Soviet spies, Murrow found himself in the enviable position of having his own television show and a particularly telegenic hairstyle. Rather than use his power as a broadcaster to take down genuinely sinister forces growing in America, such as beatniks, rock n' roll music and the civil rights movement, Murrow decided to conduct a witch hunt against McCarthy. After all, Murrow had failed to adequately support America's enemies during World War II. The least he could do was deliver the White House to his Soviet masters I don't need to tell you how it turned out: It worked. Murrow conned a nation of suckers, and Joseph McCarthy was disgraced. A few years later, McCarthy succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver, a consequence of the booze he turned to for consolation following Murrow's treason. Not satisfied to simply derail the purge of traitors from the ranks of the government, Murrow often abandoned sound journalistic principles to campaign on behalf of his own pet causes. A few notable examples: Unfairly took sides in ongoing war between werewolves and vampires. "Look, until the vampires adhere to the protocols set forth in the peace accord and start scaling back their settlements in werewolf territory, this thing's never gonna get resolved," said Murrow on See It Now. "The blame for this latest outbreak of violence falls squarely on the backs of the arch- conservative bat- men." Suggested that rape victims would be better off if they just relaxed and tried to enjoy themselves. "All that kicking and screaming and just carrying on? It never did nobody a lick of good," said Murrow in an interview with the New York Times. Wondered whether Hitler was just a little misunderstood. "Everyone makes a mistake. Hell, I used to torture rats as a kid," Murrow told his wife in confidence. Devoted entire broadcasts to the issue of calendar reform, even going so far as to endorse bombings carried out by violent calendar reform extremists. "This is what happens, America," railed Murrow on See It Now. "We've got two choices in front of us: Accept the shortcomings of the Gregorian Calendar or, you know, just never feel safe again. It's a no- brainer." Jumped to the defense of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, whom Murrow described as "the last man standing against the tyranny of the federal government and its war on the independence of local school boards." Criticized President Kennedy for his failure to attack the Soviet Union during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. "The president, I'm sorry to say, is a huge pussy," said Murrow. He supported the sexual revolution to an extent that even sexual revolutionaries thought went too far. "[Murrow] was a big supporter of [the smut peddler Alfred] Kinsey3, some quack who wrote a couple books about screwing," said Fred Friendly, producer of Murrow's See It Now. "Oh boy, you should have seen Ed when we did that story about Kinsey. Between takes, he would not shut up. It made Kinsey real uncomfortable. At one point, Ed leans in real close and says, 'Doc, I'll tell you what I'd like to see up close – a big, black cock. You ever see one of them?' At that, Kinsey got up from his seat, saying he had to go look for a bathroom." Is this really a man to regard as a hero? A man whose most notable "accomplishments" consist of undermining the very fiber of Americanness? A man who would have delivered the country to the Soviets in a gift-wrapped box if he had been given the chance? Sadly, most history departments are practically falling over themselves to heap praise at Murrow's feet. It takes the quiet protest of truly courageous publications like the Vince College Review to destroy the myths that so imperil our understanding of our nation's proud history. 1 I put the word "crime" in quotes because I was being sarcastic. It is actually not a crime to love your country, though you wouldn't know it by watching the medias. 2The truth about Santa Claus is that he cheats on his taxes. 3 Kinsey is the author of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, easily the dullest pornography ever written.