Edward R. Murrow: Trending quotes

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Edward R. Murrow: 134 quotes4 likes

“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.”

Edward R. Murrow

On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964); as quoted in Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow by Alexander Kendrick (1969)

“I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words. If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry.”

Edward R. Murrow

Broadcast from Buchenwald (1945)

“I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is--an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion — a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.”

Edward R. Murrow

This I Believe (1951)

“I have no feud, either with my employers, any sponsors, or with the professional critics of radio and television. But I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the corporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“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.”

Edward R. Murrow

On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964)

“Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or perhaps color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“This program is not a place where personal opinion should be mixed up with ascertainable facts…It is not, I think, humanly possible for any reporter to be completely objective, for we are all to some degree prisoners of our education, travel, reading—the sum total of our experience.”

Edward R. Murrow

Introducing the first broadcast of "This is the News" (September 1947)

“Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“When the politicians complain that TV turns the 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.”

Edward R. Murrow

1959, Dons Or Crooners?: Three Lectures on the Subject of Communication in the Modern World, The British Association Granada Lectures, (Three lectures given in Guildhall London in October 1959 on the subject of communication in the modern world), Lecture Title: Television and Politics, Speaker: Edward R. Murrow, Start Page 47, Quote Page 75 and 76, Published by Granada TV, London.

“I have said, and I believe, that potentially we have in this country a free enterprise system of radio and television which is superior to any other. But to achieve its promise, it must be both free and enterprising. There is no suggestion here that networks or individual stations should operate as philanthropies. But I can find nothing in the Bill of Rights or in the Communications Act which says that they must increase their net profits each year, lest the Republic collapse.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“All I can hope to teach my son is to tell the truth and fear no man.”

Edward R. Murrow

Speech to his staff (1954)

“It appeared that most of the men and boys had died of starvation; they had not been executed. But the manner of death seemed unimportant. Murder had been done at Buchenwald. God alone knows how many men and boys have died there during the last twelve years.”

Edward R. Murrow

Broadcast from Buchenwald (1945)

“The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order…With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved.”

Edward R. Murrow

Address at London Guildhall (19 October 1959)

“After last night's debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.”

Edward R. Murrow

On the televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon (26 September 1960)

“I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation.”

Edward R. Murrow

RTNDA Convention Speech (1958)

“We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks — that's show business.”

Edward R. Murrow

As quoted by Bill Moyers CBS TV (10 September 1986)

“Except for those who think in terms of pious platitudes or dogma or narrow prejudice (and those thoughts we aren’t interested in), people don’t speak their beliefs easily, or publicly.”

Edward R. Murrow

This I Believe (1951)

“As I walked down to the end of the barracks, there was applause from the men too weak to get out of bed. It sounded like the hand clapping of babies; they were so weak.”

Edward R. Murrow

Broadcast from Buchenwald (1945)