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Edward R. Murrow

58 quotes

“This... is London.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good night, and good luck.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Keith Olbermann
“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 (1908–1965) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introducing the first broadcast of "This is the News" (September 1947)
“It seems to me that any action that arbitrarily limits the citizen's access to sight, sound and print, upon which opinion can be based, is, in the true sense of the phrase, un-American.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In response to the House Un-American Activities Committee's ban on radio recording and television cameras from public hearings (1 February 1949), quoted in The New York Times
“Is it not possible that an unruly head of hair, an infectious smile, eyes that seem remarkable for the depths of their sincerity, a cultivated air of authority, may attract huge television audiences regardless of the violence that may be done to truth or objectivity?”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Saturday Evening Post (December 1949)
“If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the ... confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC (June 1953)
“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 (1908–1965) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 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 communic…
“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CBS television broadcast, on See It Now (7 March 1954)
“He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Sir Winston Churchill, in a CBS broadcast (30 November 1954)
“Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Television broadcast, (31 December 1955)
“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 (1908–1965) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at London Guildhall (19 October 1959)
“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.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at London Guildhall (19 October 1959)
“After last night's debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon (26 September 1960)
“Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments after President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address (20 January 1961).
“American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking as the Director of USIA, in testimony before a Congressional Committee (May 1963)
“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 (1908–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964); as quoted in Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow by Alexander Kendrick (1969)
“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 (1908–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964)
“A satellite has no conscience.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On receiving the "Family of Man" Award (1964)
“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.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On receiving the "Family of Man" Award from the Protestant Council of the City of New York (28 October 1964)
“We cannot make good news out of bad practice.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response as director of the U.S. Information Agency to Senate critics who wanted him to ignore racial problems to promote a better public image abroad. As quoted in Life (7 May 1965)
“The real crucial link in the international exchange is the last three feet, which is bridged by personal contact, one person talking to another.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Alexander Kendrick in Prime Time (1969)
“Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Improbable Irish (1969) by Walter Bryan
“We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks — that's show business.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Bill Moyers CBS TV (10 September 1986)
“The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Mad about Physics : Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (2001) by Christopher Jargodzki
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We went to the hospital; it was full. The doctor told me that two hundred had died the day before. I asked the cause of death; he shrugged and said, "Tuberculosis, starvation, fatigue, and there are many who have no desire to live.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This I Believe — by that name, we present the personal philosophies of thoughtful men and women in all walks of life. In this brief space, a banker or a butcher, a painter or a social worker, people of all kinds who need have nothing more in common than integrity, a real honesty, will write about the rules they live by, the things they have found to be the basic values in their lives.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a mental fear, which provokes others of us to see the images of witches in a neighbor’s yard and stampedes us to burn down this house. And there is a creeping fear of doubt, doubt of what we have been taught, of the validity of so many things we had long since taken for granted to be durable and unchanging. It has become more difficult than ever to distinguish black from white, good from evil, right from wrong.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps we should warn you that there is one thing you won’t read, and that is a pat answer for the problems of life. We don’t pretend to make this a spiritual or psychological patent-medicine chest where one can come and get a pill of wisdom, to be swallowed like an aspirin, to banish the headaches of our times.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This reporter’s beliefs are in a state of flux. It would be easier to enumerate the items I do not believe in, than the other way around. And yet in talking to people, in listening to them, I have come to realize that I don’t have a monopoly on the world’s problems. Others have their share, often far bigger than mine. This has helped me to see my own in truer perspective: and in learning how others have faced their problems — this has given me fresh ideas about how to tackle mine.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All I can hope to teach my son is to tell the truth and fear no man.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If none of us ever read a book that was "dangerous," had a friend who was "different," or joined an organization that advocated "change," we would all be just the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Last week, Senator McCarthy appeared on this program to correct any errors he might have thought we made in our report of March ninth. Since he made no reference to any statements of fact that we made, we must conclude that he found no errors of fact. He proved again, that anyone who exposes him, anyone who does not share his hysterical disregard for decency and human dignity and the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, must be either a Communist or a 'fellow traveler'.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Murrow's 13 April 1954 reply to Senator Joseph McCarthy's See It Now appearance
“This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 AND PAY LATER. For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If radio news is to be regarded as a commodity, only acceptable when saleable, and only when packaged to fit the advertising appropriation of a sponsor, then I don't care what you call it — I say it isn't news.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do not be deluded into believing that the titular heads of the networks control what appears on their networks. They all have better taste. All are responsible to stockholders, and in my experience all are honorable men. But they must schedule what they can sell in the public market.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sponsor of an hour's television program is not buying merely the six minutes devoted to commercial message. He is determining, within broad limits, the sum total of the impact of the entire hour. If he always, invariably, reaches for the largest possible audience, then this process of insulation, of escape from reality, will continue to be massively financed, and its apologist will continue to make winsome speeches about giving the public what it wants, or "letting the public decide.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If we go on as we are, we are protecting the mind of the American public from any real contact with the menacing world that squeezes in upon us. We are engaged in a great experiment to discover whether a free public opinion can devise and direct methods of managing the affairs of the nation. We may fail. But we are handicapping ourselves needlessly.”
Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source