I have always heard about how great Edward R Morrow is; wouldn’t know personally because Senator Joseph McCarthy tried to ruin his career.
My dad distrusted TV news in general, and after Edward R Murrow parted ways with CBS, really really disliked it. I used to work with a woman who would bring him and brilliance up whenever possible. At the time it felt a bit much. Unfortunately, it doesn’t anymore.
I’m not a shill for the movie “Good night and Good luck,” though I am planning to see it. Feel a bit scared; almost as if I would recognize too many problems our country has today.
I do think that at this time in our country’s history we should be celebrating dissent instead of trying to stifle it. Really what is patriotism if not questioning things that you find wrong with our country, and trying to fix them?
Why has dissent become something that’s equated with “why do you hate America so much?” A little sick of that question; and while I will go back to regularly scheduled programming next week am putting in these quotes because Edward R Morrow said things that bare repeating today. No matter what side of the spectrum you fall into, any rational person knows that questions and civilized debate are the markers of a true democracy.
In 1935, Murrow joined CBS as Director of Talks and Education but was transferred as chief of the European Bureau two years later to London. Initially his task in London was to arrange cultural programs, but the coming of World War II dramatically changed his role. Murrow made a special trip to Vienna in 1938 to report on the entrance of the Nazis into the Austrian capital, “Herr Hitler is now at the Imperial Hotel. Tomorrow, there is to be a big parade…. Please don’t think that everyone in Vienna was out to greet Herr Hitler today. There is tragedy as well as rejoicing in this city tonight.” When war was declared, Murrow reported firsthand, beginning his broadcast with the phrase that would become his hallmark, “This is London.”
Many of Murrow’s broadcasts during the Battle of Britain were punctuated by the sounds of air raid sirens or bomb explosions. The CBS offices in London and the BBC studios from which Murrow made his broadcasts were bombed at least once. On at least one occasion, he broadcast from the roof of a building during a raid to report an eye witness account of what Britain was enduring. A selection of Murrow’s broadcasts from 1939 to 1940 were published in 1941 under the title This Is London. Murrow returned to the United States at the conclusion of the war in 1945 and was promoted to Vice-President of News, Education, and Discussion Programs, but he resigned the position in 1947. Later that same year, Murrow resumed broadcasting and was elected a Director of CBS in 1949.
Okay Anderson Cooper we’re beginning to count on you; and Jon Stewart, yes. Or should I ask the title question? Are bloggers the new Edward R Murrow?
His reputation as America’s greatest journalist lives on. The Edward R Morrow awards for excellence in electronic journalism have been given annually since 1961. Little Luce’s father aka Lucia’s last husband won one several years ago. Little Luce was his date to the awards ceremony. Hey this is my personal blog; I can throw in personal experiences. I took her to get her nails done; Angie Ralph did her hair; her mom bought the dress, helped her get dressed, and cried a lot over her baby looking so beautiful and going to such an important event. Okay, we all did.
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it”
A satellite has no conscience.
After last night’s debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.
Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices – just recognize them.
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.
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were.
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.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.
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.
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.
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.
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.
We are in the same tent as the clowns and the freaks-that’s show business.
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.”
“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
Good night, and good luck.
What are your favorite quotes?
There are a few quotes that really speak to me. I have said before that I find what is happening now to be scarier than the era of Joe McCarthy because communication is so rapid, and a few people who want to regulate our lives and our morality have taken to slandering every person who disagrees with them.
When I began Courting a year ago last August for writing practice; the Republicans were coming to NY for the RNC. I didn’t have a terrace or front street window to hang a banner from so I gave it the url www.freenynyfrombushtody.blogspot.com.
As the blogs before and after mine were generally “the diary of somebody Jones,” aka a porn blog, “and Jesus dies daily so you can keep sinning,” or “GW Bush, Cheney, Rove, Libby, aren’t they the best people ever,” I never read blogs, and couldn’t really understand why I would get comments telling me to move to France and other such stuff.
When I put it on BE and actually did read blogs I quickly understood that many bloggers considered my rights to be less than their rights. Then Cranky sent me something about “how only Muslims could be capable of a crime like this,” (killing Coptic Christians in Jersey City; it was a former tenant and his friend, who actually committed the crime, though a few people will never believe that.)
As I know Jersey City, and frankly it has had more than its shares of scandals, I knew that the police would do everything in their power to find the true killers. Also knew that they would probably use advisers from the NYPD who unfortunately have had to become the leading terrorist specialists.
Recently my moralvalues were attacked; I did make a big deal out of it because it was a darn story; people should still allowed to tell them without fear of repercussions or having to defend their morality to people who have designated themselves to be the moral police.
If there ever was a time to stand up and be counted in this country, it’s now.
Please read my comment policy on the side bar. Trolls aren’t welcome here.
I think bloggers are more like the new Tom Paine aka Common Sense. Bloggers are like the pamphleteers back during the begining of the nation even before it won it’s independence.
Think of blogging like the salons in pre-Revolutionary France. Free ideas, discussion, and the like. No one person will change the world, but the ideas we discuss just may.
It takes alot of work and living to find your own moral compass. One of the best things about America is the melting pot idea, right? Everyone has their own moral compass and as a group of compasses, we get to chart a course better for everyone.
Somehow, in the last few years, unless you have the same kind of moral compass as the majority then you aren’t as welcome to the debate.
Reminds me of the Cold War. Why are you saying you like socialism? What are you? A Commie? Umm, no, I’d just like Universal Health Care.
There’s nothing broken about your moral compass. There’s something broken with the moving everyone forward together.
I think the quote that started it all, as in, how dissent has become so intertwined with blogging and journalism in general, was “You’re either with us or against us.” It clearly created a line of defiance that separated conservatives from liberals. Where crossovers existed in the past, it became red or blue. Nothing in between. It opened up the floodgates we so often hear now, that of being unpatriotic if you disagree with anything the present administration says or does. Fortunately, the tide is changing.
I could see blogging as somewhat of a new way of broadcasting the news and most importantly, opinions. Overall, not that many people have computers to read and write blogs. Many are used for work only. The vast majority of computer users are not blog savvy. I’ve had a lot of people ask me what a blog is, not because I am a blogger, but, since I’m on a computer every day, my knowledge must dictate that I know. In the future, it will change, just as it was in Murrow’s day. Not many people had televisions back then.
Dissent is a very welcomed thing. You’re right on target with, “No matter what side of the spectrum you fall into, any rational person knows that questions and civilized debate are the markers of a true democracy.” Unfortunately, I feel that writings that are so far to the left or right might not do as much good as one would want. The key words here are “rational” and “civilized debate.” These blogs alienate many readers and create fighting instead of encouraging a genuine back and forth banter that really gets the juices flowing. Sometimes I feel writers are a lot freer to offer fringe opinions because they are behind their computer screen and not physically in one’s face, which might cause a whole different attitude. A lot of comments tend to be yelling and screaming at each other through the written word without accomplishing anything. Those who agree write diatribes condemning the other side. Consquently, what separates these types of political blogs apart from the McCarthys of the world? Red or blue.
You know, I think that alot of the people who question our government, and poke holes in society are genuinely hateful people who have alot of serious issues. There are MANY people who aren’t like that, but the fact is that I remember back when the WTO met in Seattle. We had riots flooding the streets, and the fact is, that is that the majority of those people don’t even know what the WTO is. I think that when people create constructive criticism, and work to better the world, they make FAR more positive changes then when people cause riots and act like badasses over stuff they really don’t understand.
I pretty much like all the quotes; in toto they comprise quite a zeitgeist. Some of them are commonly used aphorisms that I did not realize came from Murrow.
I think you will indeed be reminded of the problems we face today when you see the movie (I have not seen it); I gather that’s sort of the idea. (I want to see it, but having as I do a toddler, I seldom go out these days to anything that doesn’t involve Elmo.) In the way that the TV show M*A*S*H was really about Viet Nam.
Who said, “All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”? I like that one too. It aptly describes why the Right is so insistent on stifling dissent. We must NEVER be silent. Because that would be good men (and women) doing nothing. To hell with the bullies and the hate mongers.
What blogging does is, it democratizes journalism. I have an old post somewhere on my blog that makes the point that today, mainstream news is no longer in the “scoop” business. Bloggers will publish something when it is still rumor or innuendo; by the time any story has been fact checked enough to make it to the Times or Newsweek, we’ve already linked to it. Who broke the whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing? Matt Drudge. The only way mainstream news breaks a story is if Karl Rove picks up the phone and leaks one. ANd that isn’t breaking a story; that’s being a dupe.
Of course since bloggers can and typically do go to print on a whim, the new truths are sometimes lost amidst a sea of noise. But they are in there somewhere, and truth will out.
My favorite quote listed above, in its relevance to blogging, is this:
“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.”
I think that blogging will be known in the future as being revolutionary to the disbursement of information, but it’s up to us as individuals to do our own research as so many blogs are based on rumor and inuendo. I think about the recent ballsiness of the Democrats, but then wonder where the hell they’ve been? Bloggers have been pointing out, since before the war began, facts that tended to counter the lies told by the administration to take us into war. But then again, because bloggers aren’t held to the legal standards that other journalistic mediums are, we are forced to be active in gathering the information we get.
I don’t know that Bloggers will be the next Murrows, but we are definately up there with some of the finest dissidents from any revolution. The problem, I think, is in getting more people interested in pro-actively seeking information, rather than just believing the first thing they read.
First and foremost, “We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home” spoke to me loud and clear. Why is it that too many people think that they have the right to tell us what we should think, feel, do or say? Because I don’t speak what they want to hear, I’m wrong?! Our nation was built by people who stood united, but you can sure as hell bet they didn’t agree on every last little issue.
“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.” Seriously, think about that for just a minute or two. Did we allow Osama Bin Laden to terrorize us, or did we stand up to him and fight? No one, but no one, can hold this nation hostage, unless we allow it to happen! Not terrorists, not the Klan, not politicians, no one. So stand up and speak out. Don’t be afraid to take a stand for what you believe to be morally and ethically right. No form of intimidation should ever sway you from a course you know to be right.
Sorry, I got up on my soapbox again. It’s just a pet peeve of mine.
Yeah! What Debby said!
I don’t know if anyone could be like Murrow. Another good journalist of that time is Ernie Pyle.
My favorite Nietzsche quote:
“Let us not underestimate the privileges of the mediocre. As one climbs higher, life becomes ever harder; the coldness increases, responsibility
increases.”
Bloggers won’t be the next Edward R Murrow. Blogging is simply a reflection of society. The cream will rise to the top, but there will always be those who are going to be wallowing in the mud. One of the positive things about blogging is that it has the ability to bring multiple societies and cultures closer together. But quality news or journalism? Please, don’t put yourself (us?) on that level.
Do the negative comments bother you?
If they bother you that much, you should quit blogging. If they bother you, but you want to keep blogging, stop complaining about them unless you’re going to use them to make a point or are trying to arose some sympathy.
I said that Edward R Murrow, who I would never equate myself with, might have died of a broken heart because of the lingering affects of McCarthyism.
The point that I clearly made is that some bloggers consider themselves to be the morality police.
Those type of negative comments only serve to satisfy their needs, and I refuse to enable them
Why would I be looking for sympathy or to complain? That makes no sense in the context of this post
Do not ever say that the desire to “do good” by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.
Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)
Those are some of mine all Ayn Rand.
Nice post mia pia.
I want to see that movie.
I find dissent admirable. Regardless of what party is in charge, there always needs to be people questioning authority, ESPECIALLY our government.
I think it’s a proven fact that if men can abuse power, they will.
Good post, Pia
There is a famous line from AI about computer intelligence… “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana”.
It’s all about context, and computers can’t do context
Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.
Your paragraph after the quote list stuck out to me as the crux of the matter: we’re being bombarded with so much information, so much misinformation, and so many opinions that masquerade as fact, that it’s hard to decipher what IS going on, and who is controlling how we feel. Now, more than ever, people need to find reliable, straight-forward news, and take the time to rationalize their opinions.Right now, I feel that “if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” And too many people are not paying attention, OR listening to and reading propaganda.
A lot of the comments had insightful ideas about what blogs are, right now. Most of the people I’m acquainted with don’t have a clear idea of what a blog is. Blogs are lots of things–mine’s just a journal that was started to play around with my family, others are about travel, or sports…most are not serious blogs, really. And the ones that are serious have no obligation to stick to any ethics guidelines, as has already been pointed out. In the future, I expect that serious blogs will acquire a different handle and be thought of as a thing apart from all the petblogs, etc. out there. THEN, maybe, they will become more reliable and professional.
Good post, Pia! I want to see that movie.
I don’t know if the blogosphere is set up to act like Ed Murrow, but I think there are blogs out there tha reflect the Murrow spirit. Some out there, as most people find out quickly, as just as much like Joseph Goebbels. As for the new flick, George Clooney is possibly one of the most amazing directors out there. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was amazing, as was his made-for-TV version of Fail Safe.
Oh, and good post!
Yes, if you’re going to discuss politics, or religion, or other touchy subjects you’re going to get differing points of view–unless you’re the POTUS and all naysayers are screened out of your press conference.
But there is a big difference between people who write comments that explain why they disagree with you and trolls who do nothing more than jump down your throat and insult you personally!
Those people are not bloggers. They are the adult equivalent of junior high school students writing in slam books, and if their minds are so firmly closed to any beliefs except their own party line, they should content themselves with visiting such blogs, nodding their heads and bleating!
Nice post, Pia. Love some of those Morrow lines and will probably end up using myself one of these days!
How do you define troll?
I loved this one: “People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were.”
Favorite quote? For today let’s try
“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!”
-Robert Burns To A Mouse
Murrow was full of wonderful quotes… and I think now like you said, more than ever is the time to stand up and be counted. I really dislike that if you disagree these days with something the Government is doing, you’re labeled unpatriotic. As far as blogging. I believe many underate its power. Sure there are propaganda blogs out there, I’ve even had mine called that, but that’s what makes it so powerful… for the first time in the history of this planet, EVERYBODY has the ability to stand up and have there say. I’m sure that annoys much of the establishment, but who cares… if we don’t excercise this right to have our say, I liken it to not voting. Great post and a wondeful blog design, I’m jealous!
I respect meaningful dissent and dialogue but “Bush is evil” is not meaningful or constructive dissent. Calling someone “hate monger†because they challenge your beliefs or behavior (like one of the comments did) is just a message of mindless hate. Some people on left will get angry when I tell them I disagree and why. I cannot believe it but it seems that some on the left think that a right to free speech means a right to not have their opinions challenged. The blogs are as likely to support the right as they are to push a liberal agenda. No one has stifled dissent, Sheehan has been able to march and protest and you can post on your blog. That is your right and my right is to tell you that I think your beliefs are selfish and putting this country in danger.
You see that’s the problem: not one person on this thread said “Bush is evil”
When a president knowingly and reapeatly puts certain interests first, people are going to call him a “hatemonger.”
You don’t consult with James Dobson before making a Supreme Court nomination. That puts Christianity above the Constitution
As a non-Christian I would have disliked him just for that