Word: murrow
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...long and lucrative career on television, CBS's Edward R. Murrow, 52, developed a particular skill for the shame-of-America documentary that trains the camera eye on the dark corners of U.S. life. But last January Murrow decided to go to Washington, accepting a presidential appointment as director of the U.S. Information Agency. Last week, in a bumbling effort to kill a TV documentary that he himself had narrated, Ed Murrow made clear demonstration of the truism that one's view can be shaped...
...after Thanksgiving, the documentary drew for turkey-stuffed Americans a stark picture of the field hands who rove about the country, living in makeshift squalor, and selling their labor for an average of $900 a year. Moving in shirtsleeves among the film's subjects, Narrator Murrow reached heights of personal indignation, as when he quoted one migrant-hiring Southern farmer: "We used to own our slaves; now we just rent them...
...other hand, it seems equally improbable that Murrow was forced into his action by higher government officials. Murrow is almost universally regarded as a man of principle, one who would not knuckle under to official pressure, especially on his first day in office. Moreover, the attempted suppression of the film is completely out of line with other recent Administration decisions. Only last week the President abandoned the silly (and perhaps unconstitutional) program of intercepting mail entering the country from behind the Iron Curtain...
...country for circulation in other nations cannot be reconciled with the ideals of American democracy. In addition, attempting to cover up the unpleasant aspects of American life is as unwise as it is futile. Deficiencies exist and cannot, for long, be hidden by suppression. Whatever his original intentions, Murrow has provided ammunition for those who depict the U.S. as a country where freedom is a word to be talked about abroad and an ideal to be defied here...
Neither expediency nor principle justifies Murrow's action. If there is an explanation, it should be given, so as to resolve this most un-ingenuous paradox...