Bob Edwards (1) (1947–2024)

Bob Edwards’s Edward R. Murrow and The Birth of Broadcast Journalism is a meaningful biography on one of CBS’s stalwart broadcasters. "Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born on April 24, 1908, at Polecat Creek in Guilford Country, North Carolina." He lived in a log cabin that had no electricity, plumbing, or heat except for a fireplace that doubled as the cooking area. He and his family later settled in Seattle, some thirty miles from the Canadian border. Edward attended high school in the town of Edison, four miles south of Blanchard where he was active in the orchestra, the glee club, sang solos in operettas, played baseball and basketball, drove a school bus, and was president in his senior year of the student body.
English teacher Ruth Lawson was his mentor and convinced him to join the debating team. After graduating from high school Ed spent the next year working in the timber industry. Soon he followed his brothers’ footsteps and enrolled at Washington State College in Pullam. There he learned to express his feelings about the meaning of words, and he became a star pupil. Ed Murrow conquered Washington State having excelled as an actor and debater, and served as ROTC cadet colonel, becoming not only the president of the student body, but also head of the Pacific Student Presidents Association. His class of 1930 was about to join the workforce during the Great Depression.
Soon Ed was off to New York City to run the national office of the National Student Federation Association (NSFA). He cocreated and supplied guests for the University of the Air for CBS. Dr, Stephen Duggan served as advisor to NSFA, and was director of the Institute of International Education (IIE). In 1932 he hired Ed Murrow as his assistant. Ed’s involvement with speakers in America and overseas brought him to the attention of Ed Klauber of CBS, who hired him. His first assignment would be in Europe, so he set sail for England.
It was while in Europe during the war years that Ed R. Murrow became famous. He is known for broadcasting war news, hiring an excellent staff away from the wire services, and initiating hookups with newsmen that were reporting from European capitals. It should be remembered that American broadcasting was still in its embryonic stage. NBC and CBS mainly broadcast entertainment, music, and talk shows. But it was Murrow who was the first to introduce Americans, and the world to live news broadcasts about Hitler’s adventurism on the European continent.
When Murrow was back in New York City at CBS, one of his more popular shows on TV was See It Now. He and producer Fred Friendly were responsible for the downfall of Joseph McCarthy who was perpetrating the Red Scare in America. By this time a number of innocent Americans had lost their jobs, suffered, and ridiculed. Another crowning achievement of Murrow was his documentary entitled Grapes of Wrath about migrant farm workers in the United States. For a little over three years Edward R. Murrow further worked as director of USIA. He died on April 25, 1965 at age fifty-seven years… (lisätietoja)

This is a deliberately short book addressing Murrow's influence on broadcast news and skimming over the details of his career and life, but it's a good, solid introduction to Murrow. It includes the text from some of his most famous broadcasts and speeches.

However, the most surprising, interesting, and gripping part of the book was Bob Edward's afterword. This scorching assessment of modern broadcast journalism and how Murrow would never have risen to the level of fame and influence he knew in the 1940s and 50s is the speech of an angry man, I think, one who is in intense agreement with Murrow's vision of television and radio's responsibility and power and its failure to use that power in upholding the responsibility.… (lisätietoja)

When I saw "Bob Edwards" I pounced on this Netgalley offering, and was glad to be granted access – thank you to them. Probably twenty years ago a friend twigged me on to NPR, and I didn't look at another radio station for years. The only reason I stopped listening in 2008 was that I reached my tolerance level for politics and had to have music – but I missed Morning Edition and All Things Considered; I missed Bob Edwards and Carl Kassel and Michele Norris and Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer and Nina Totenberg and Steve Innskeep and Renee Montagne (and Faith Middleton and Kai Ryssdal and John Dankosky and Ray Hardman) like friends removed from my life. But I could not tolerate even one more minute of election coverage. (Yay – we're coming up on that time rapidly again. Hurrah.) I began listening again a while later, but with one thing and another it has not been practical to have it on in the car or at work. And I miss it.

It's the gaps in my listenership that explain how I did not know that Bob Edwards was – for reasons unknown, at least to Bob – fired from his position as the Voice of Morning Edition for just cruelly shy of 25 years. I'd heard something, knew that the hosting duties had passed on, but the ripples never reached me, somehow. And I'm utterly dismayed. This memoir is, in places, disconcerting in its bitterness against NPR in general but more specifically Ken Stern – not that I in any way think Bob Edwards doesn't have the right to be deeply bitter. I think he's been class itself in how he's handled the ridiculous and inexplicable situation. But it leaves me deeply disappointed in my beloved NPR. Damn. Suddenly I'm glad I wasn't connected at the time. Still, his affection for and loyalty to his fellow broadcasters, his guests, and above all his listeners throughout the years is uppermost.

A Voice in the Box is what Bob Edwards wanted to be from his earliest memories, always enamored with the magic of radio. And that is what he became, through a textbook example of reaching goals through sheer determination, focus, hard work, and refusal to give up. He takes us through his youth to an enviable college experience, to his first penny-ante jobs and into his stint on (Armed Forces Radio) in Korea and, eventually, to NPR and out again. A lot of what attracted me to NPR is what led him there – intelligence and a sense of humor; and, of course, his long presence there contributed to the same.

But, as Morning Edition moved on, so did he. One of the job offers he was almost immediately presented with was a daily show on what was XM Radio – and he very shortly joined Channel 133. And there he has been able to concentrate his focus on exactly where he wants it to go, to do more of purely what he wants to do – which is, for the most part, to talk to people. His passion for finding out people's stories is what always made him such a wonderful companion, and … I admit it. Now I want Sirius XM Radio.

If the bitterness made this difficult to read, there was still much joy to be found in the anecdotes about fellow broadcasters and about the wild variety of people he interviewed through his career. I know and love cowboy, poet, philosopher, former large-animal veterinarian (not vegetarian) Baxter Black; I did not know Father Greg Boyle, and I hope to find the stories about him archived somewhere. The same goes for "Stories from 3rd Med – Surviving a Jungle ER": "There were no defibrillators available to 3rd Med, so Dr. Jack Hagan and corpsman John Little fashioned one from a pair of kitchen knives, an electrical cord, and a generator." And so on. It wouldn't be hard to listen to nothing but archived stories for the next few years. I'm tempted.

I've been subscribed to the podcast of his weekend show for a while now, and – yes, there's Bob Edwards, the dry humor and warm deep voice with whom I spent my morning commutes and – when I was lucky and had complete control over what I listened to – my mornings at work. It was a pleasure to meet him more thoroughly in these digital pages.

Now I want Carl Kassell's biography. (And his voice on my answering machine.)

Thank you, Bob.

~~ Abridged version of what's on my blog ...… (lisätietoja)

I listened to the audio version of this book during a road trip. I'd already seen Good Night and Good Luck, so I felt like I had an idea of what we'd be learning about Murrow in this book. I was wrong. This man led a full, rich, and amazing life. He achieved so many wonderful things, not the least of which was setting our expectations about what journalism could (and should) be. I think the one thing I took away from the book is that if I see good journalism, I should let the station know. Too often, I just send emails when I get all huffy about something and not when I see good, balanced reporting on issues important to the community and the country.… (lisätietoja)