Customer Reviews

The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism

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Great book for news junkies, World War II buffs, and anyone who has ever gotten shafted on the job! The authors showed how these men made CBS the Tiffany network, and how it discarded every single one of them, including the great Ed Murrow. An insightful look at network news, and why there's not much depth to it. Interesting to see what went on "behind the scenes" with some of the most famous (and not familar) names in broadcast journalism. Not a boring chapter in the book!

The names Murrow, Sevareid, Collingwood, and Shirer have created standards that have been forgotten. Thought has been replaced by good looks. Read this book to see how CBS News became a news operation of mythic proportion with brilliant, yet terribly troubled men creating such high standards that have become forgotten. (You'll see no one on your local five pm television news here.) For these men, the importance was in writing, not pictures. You'll also see how these legendary men were racked with insecurities and self-torture. It's also uncanny in terms of how each had a rise and fall at CBS. Sadly, it's all true. The authors didn't need to resort to poetic license. (Read other accounts of these figures and you'll learn that.) When you're done with this book, you'll wish Howard K. Smith or Robert Trout were still on television today. You'll wish that instead of having happy talk on the news, you had thoughful, intelligent people who respected their audience doing reports that provoked the viewer's intellect and not pander to him. Read how Howard K. Smith was fired from CBS, what prompted it way back then, and realize the standards have been steadily declining since then on all networks. It's an enjoyable, easy-to-read book that describes the creation and erosion of impeccable standards.

This look at the "Boys" who covered World War II for CBS radio is quite moving. I liked reading of Ed Murrow's battles with the CBS brass, and the portraits of William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Larry LeSueur, Myra Breckenridge (the Murrow "Girl"), Charles Collingwood, etc. How odd that such talented journalists were often wracked by jealousy and self-doubt. How predictable that CBS eventually dumped most of the Boys - along with their high standards - after the advent of television. By forsaking such talent, CBS helped usher in the image-conscious, bleeds-it-leads mediocrity of today's news. Fortunately, Howard K. Smith, Shirer, Sevareid and several others left a rich legacy in books and memoirs, and at this writing one can still hear Richard C. Hottelet report for National Public Radio (NPR). This book should be required reading for all journalists and corporate news executives.

What combination of forces put Murrow and "the boys" at the forefront of creating the style and format of the network news that is part of our daily lives? "The Murrow Boys : Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism" by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson appears to promise an answer to the question. While the book is well written, exhaustively researched, and filled with anecdotes, Cloud and Olson fail to deliver any new insight. After an introduction which sets the background, the authors structure the book around one-chapter biographies of the newsmen, often succombing to the temptation of wandering off into the byroads of celebrity biography, losing overall focus. In many cases, such as the commentary on Howard K. Smith, the biography presented here pales before the honest, understated drama and insight offered by the subjects in their own autobiographies--as in the case of Smith's totally riveting "Events Leading to My Death." And when the last mini-biography has been recounted, the book ends. I'm reminded of Snoopy writing his novel and saying "In Part 2 I tie all this together." Except the writers never tie it all together. Thus, it is an well done book, and for those unfamiliar with the biographies of the players, it will be an interesting book. When one considers the historical information to which the authors had access, the book could have been so much more. None of the newsmen celebrated in this book would have closed the broadcast without cogent commentary into the meaning of these facts and anecdotes before closing with "Good Night and Good luck."

Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson's THE MURROW BOYS is very well researched and sourced. The writing is lively, and propels the reader happily forward. In this book, Cloud and Olson treat a fascinating and important subject that is largely forgotten in the contemporary world of news-as-entertainment.

Edward R. Murrow had drawn together an erudite, talented group of thinkers and writers to form the first cadre of broadcast journalists. His crack team of radio reporters covered the tragedy and triumphs of what became known as World War II, in a way both immediate and personal, both intimate and emblematic, and above all literate. Occasionally, television journalism rises above popular tastes and pretty talking heads to inform and move the viewer on truly critical issues of the day, but never with the consistency and depth of insight of the Murrow Boys.

The Murrow Boys, however, by and large shared a weakness with their later television counterparts: they were vain and egotistical, in short, "stars." Cloud and Olsen, aside from skillfully explaining the revolution in mass communications that radio journalism was, devote quite a bit of their book to the celebrity status of these prima donnas. This underscores the Murrow Boys' ultimate self-deception and hypocrisy: while they railed at the shallowness of television news production, programming, and personalities, they positioned themselves--each one out for himself--to grab as much limelight as possible. Ultimately, celebrity triumphed over journalistic integrity.

Thus THE MURROW BOYs does come off as a fast-paced celebrity biography. As a celebrity biography, it is very successful: it is engaging and sophisticated. From that perspective, one might well treat it as one does an intelligent "beach read": light, entertaining reading that one does not have to hide.

However that may be, the book gives one an appreciation for the significance of the Murrow Boys. Too bad, though, that the authors did not choose to include more text from the reporting of the Murrow Boys; that would have given the reader a greater appreciation of their eloquence. Better yet, a CD with some of these broadcasts would have made a nice accompaniment.

And too bad that the authors did not choose to go beyond the Murrow Boys' celebrity to explain the impact of their reporting on the American public as well as how they may have helped to shape history. As an example of the misplaced priorities of the writers: There is an instance described late in the book about how Charles Collingwood was invited to North Vietnam in 1968 and how his reporting from Hanoi helped lead to the peace talks. This half-page is then followed up with three pages on the relationship between Collingwood and his wife, Rita, at this time.

Despite these limitations, the book is still fun and informative. And it really ought to read as a reminder of the tremendous service delivered by Murrow's proud pioneers of the airwaves.

A fascinating look at the men at the front lines of the emergence of television journalism. The writers sweep you up in the enthusiasm of men like Ed Murrow, Eric Sevareid, and Howard K. Smith as they realize the possibilities of the medium they command, only to be crushed by sponsors and kowtowing executives in the drive to provide mindless entertainment. A real eye-opener if you still believe that TV news is impartial or gives you anywhere near the whole story, and a sad reminder of what once was and will never be. Every chapter and character is intriguing, so dig in!

One of the most hallowed names in the history of broadcast journalism is that of Edward R. Murrow who tenure at CBS News ran from 1935 to 1961. His reputation is legendary ranging from fearlessly covering the London Blitz on rooftops while Nazi bombs rained around him during the Battle of Britain to taking on and helping bring down Communist witch hunter Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's. While there have been several noteworthy biographies of the gentleman less attention has been paid to the staff of foreign correspondents he put together prior to and during World War II that set the standard for broadcasting excellence. "The Murrow Boys" a meticulously researched and fascinating tome remedies this situation.

The original group alphabetically was the following one woman and ten men: Mary Marvin Breckinridge, Cecil Brown, Winston Burdett, Charles Collingwood, William Downs, Thomas Grandin, Richard C. Hottelet, Larry LeSueur, Eric Sevareid, William L. Shirer, and Howard K. Smith. The beginning was in 1937, when Edward R. Murrow, fledgling director of shows in Europe for CBS radio recruited fellow American foreign correspondent William L. Shirer. Together they would make broadcast history and revolutionize how war news would be reported when Hitler invaded and took over neighboring Austria in the March 1938 Anschluss. In just eight hours Murrow in Vienna and Shirer in London pulled together the first news "roundup" a thirty minute radio broadcast on the European reaction to the Anschluss, Shirer and a member of Parliament spoke from London, Murrow from Vienna and also American journalists in Paris, Berlin and Rome. After this triumphant accomplishment, when a bone weary Shirer and Murrow reunited at a bar in Vienna, Murrow told Shirer "Maybe now, my friend, we can go places." Indeed they did, and radio news broadcasting would truly come into its own with their assistance.

As the horizon darkened on the European continent in spring/summer of 1939 and war seemed inevitable, Murrow continued to add new recruits to his team. Thomas Grandin and Eric Sevareid both based in Paris were the next to be hired. He had an unerring eye for nascent talent, and in the course of the next two years would assemble a dream team of the best and brightest in broadcast journalism. The team was a triple threat; they got the news, wrote their own copy, and reported it live on the radio. They were on a whole well educated, erudite, idealistic, mainly of a liberal slant and although some of them did not have the most resonant voices, their writing and analysis were first rate. These were young correspondents in their twenties and thirties, with the drive, recklessness and stamina to get the story, and considering the chances they took, led charmed lives. But oh the stories they covered: Eric Sevaraid breaking the news of the fall of France to Germany, Bill Shirer's exclusive of the humiliating armistice of the French to the Germans, Larry LeSueur hitting Utah Beach in the second wave on D-Day, Richard C. Hotteltot being first to report on the Battle of the Bulge among others!

Inevitably fame and acclaim would come to many, particularly Murrow, Shirer, Sevareid, Collingwood and Smith. Bestsellers would be published, they would be lionized by society and their celebrity would seduce some of them. But in the postwar world would come disillusionment with the changing role of the journalist and the media. Radio was starting to recede as television came in, the lofty ideals of wartime replaced particularly by CBS Chairman William Paley with a cautious conservatism as the specter of McCarthyism gained power, coupled with the urge to drive CBS profits higher at whatever the cost. Three significant casualties to this would be Murrow, Shirer and Smith. Others would deal with failed marriages, infidelities, alcoholism, bitterness and ruined health; Edward R. Murrow, "the Boys" idol and mentor, would succumb to lung cancer at just fifty-seven years of age, a casualty of his trademark ever-present cigarette. Finally as they aged, the world would pass them by, as time does with us all. Reading this engrossing, at times cautionary tale, the above quote from Shakespeare's play "Cymbeline" seemed an appropriate title to this review.

One particular aspect I found intriguing was the role of women in this particular sphere of influence and how much times changed for the better. One woman Murrow was able to hire Mary Marvin Breckinridge did sterling work covering the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries in spring 1940. Yet when she got married later on same year, it was expected she would retire gracefully, which she did, it was her choice, but if she hadn't she would have been replaced. However another excellent American woman stringer reporter in Norway at the same time Betty Wason was not able to continue her position due to female prejudice and was told by New York Headquarters to find a male replacement, she had to yield to Winston Burdett. Several of the wives were extraordinary women as well, equal in bravery to their more celebrated husbands. Tess Shirer gave birth to their daughter in Vienna at the height of the Anschluss, nearly dying of complications, her Jewish doctor fleeing, Nazi goons prowling the hospital corridors; afterwards in Geneva she ran a small news bureau for Shirer while he remained in Berlin. Lois Sevareid, had a similar situation when she gave birth to twin boys shortly before France fell, left alone in a clinic in Neuilly, while the nurses and patients fled the Nazi advance. Rescued by Sevareid, she was soon on her way back alone to the USA with two infants through submarine infested waters. Later in the war, she moved to Cairo as a trained lawyer to work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Janet Murrow, endured both the fury of London Blitz and her husband's late wartime affair with the notorious Pamela Churchill with courage and fortitude. Yet these women for all their intelligence and talent were expected to take and be content with a second place status. Oh yes, certainly was a different world!

Co-authors Stanley Cloud former Washington Bureau Chief for "Time", and his wife Lynne Olson correspondent for AP & "Baltimore Sun", journalistic experience gives this biography added dimension and depth. Their style is excellent and this work is very fair and balanced, Murrow and his associates are portrayed honestly yet not salaciously, warts and all. They also show the shift and decline of the broadcast news over the years, where flashy style takes precedence over substance, since the networks can coin bigger bucks that way. I'd recommend this to anyone who's interested in how television news declined to the nadir of the Fox News Network. There is indeed irony that most of the analysis of the news these days is coming laden with heavy doses of satire and sarcasm on "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report", both spoofs of evening news shows on "Comedy Central".

A must for anyone interest in broadcast news history. I can't rave enough about this book. Thorough, but not boring, I'm very glad I read this to learn more about Murrow and his legacy.

Sometimes nonfiction can be very dry. Not this story! Reads like a novel that you can't put down. Reveals interesting anecdotes about some of the most famous broadcast journalists of the 20th century: Edward R. Murrow, Howard K. Smith and Eric Severaid. I never realized that Howard K. Smith was such a firebrand, popping off to the Nazis and being forced onto the last train out of Berlin the night before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Or that Eric Severaid was trapped in the Himalayas for a month after the plane he was on broke down and had to be abandoned.

I bought a used copy of the book and it's in excellent condition.

I bought this for my husband who was a TV news reporter for 40+ years before retiring. He loved this book. He felt it showed perfectly how and perhaps why the news business has gone from a high-standard public service to what is essentially entertainment. If this is a subject that interests you ... if you have ever asked the question "Whatever happened to real news?", then this book is a MUST read. Very well written, too.