Murrow: Journalism At Its Best

On a cool September evening somewhere in America in 1940, a family gathers around a vacuum- tube radio. As someone adjusts the tuning knob, a distinct and serious voice cuts through the airwaves: �This ... is London.�

And so begins a riveting first- hand account of the infamous �London Blitz,� the wholesale bombing of that city by the German air force in World War II. Behind the microphone, sitting atop a London rooftop thousands of miles from the United States, sits a young journalist, Edward R. Murrow. With this and other wartime broadcasts, Murrow would spearhead the use of radio- based reporting and almost single- handedly create the concept of �broadcast journalism.�

Edward R. Murrow�s reputation as one of America�s most celebrated journalists endures long after his life was ended by lung cancer at the age of 57. Murrow would bring to American radio listeners � and later television viewers � compelling stories that would come alive through words and pictures; he would describe the horrors of war both on and off the battlefield; he would challenge a powerful member of the U.S. Congress in the midst of the �Red Scare� of the 1950s; and, near the end of his life, he would be called on by the president of the United States to lead the nation�s effort to �tell America�s story to the world.�

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