Post-war

After the war, Murrow returned to the United States and considered a variety of job offers—among them the presidency of Washington State College and U.S. assistant secretary of state. But he decided to stay at CBS and soon found himself working with producer Friendly on his radio program, Hear It Now. The program evolved to become the TV news and public affairs program See It Now in 1951, the early days of television. One of the program’s broadcasts became another defining moment in Murrow’s legacy.

Murrow, Friendly, and their team produced a special See It Now report that aired March 9, 1954, about Senator Joseph McCarthy and the crusade he was conducting against alleged Communist influence in the United States. The show criticized McCarthy, using excerpts from his own speeches and proclamations. The broadcast unleashed a nationwide backlash against McCarthy and is regarded as a turning point in television history. CBS received tens of thousands of letters, telegrams, and phone calls praising the broadcast. McCarthy’s political influence ebbed rapidly soon after. On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution censuring McCarthy for conduct unbecoming to a senator.

“…and is regarded as a turning point in television history.”

Television also provided Murrow with the opportunity to call the public’s attention to the poor, the forgotten, and people of color. Poverty, the Supreme Court’s 1954 school desegregation decision, the link between lung cancer and smoking, and the plight of migrant agricultural workers were among the topics of memorable broadcasts he produced.

But overall Murrow struggled mightily with television’s ability to draw attention away from ideas to focus on pictures. He observed firsthand the influence of entertainment and finances on decisions and priorities in the news industry, at CBS, and within the network’s news division. “If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour,” he once remarked, “there would be a considerable number of stations which would decline to carry it on the grounds that a Western or quiz show would be more profitable.”

Murrow’s independent thinking, critical broadcasts, and especially his pointed criticisms of the broadcasting industry alienated CBS administrators and sponsors. CBS chairman Bill Paley finally ended the four-year run of See It Now in 1958, after one of many philosophical clashes with Murrow, whom he considered a friend.

Three months later, Murrow created additional waves, delivering a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in which he blasted TV’s emphasis on entertainment and commercialism at the expense of public interest. Toward the end of the speech, he drove home his point:

“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. And our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

. . . This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it’s nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance, and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”

The speech further damaged the Murrow-Paley relationship. By the late 1950s, most of Murrow’s programs had been cut, salary negotiations had stalled (he was earning a higher salary than the network’s president), and Murrow was reduced to delivering occasional segments for CBS Reports. Clearly, the end of his CBS career was rapidly approaching.

Murrow began mulling other opportunities. He was encouraged to run for a U.S. Senate seat representing New York during the 1950s and for the governorship of the state against Nelson Rockefeller in the early 1960s. Each time, he rebuffed the overtures. BBC proposed that Murrow produce a television series about contemporary England. Finally, in 1961 he accepted John F. Kennedy’s offer to become the director of the United States Information Agency (USIA). It seemed like the perfect fit, given Murrow’s background, interests, and experience in international affairs.

The USIA managed the public image of the United States abroad and was responsible for the Voice of America broadcasts worldwide. Established in 1953 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the agency’s 12,000 employees managed the nation’s presence in more than 84 countries. Among its major activities at the time were offering services to youth and labor groups, operating libraries and friendship centers, and producing movies and providing press and publication services.

Murrow served as head of the USIA for three years. He made several trips abroad to visit the agency’s field offices. Back home he emphasized the hiring of more African Americans to high ranking USIA positions. The agency also began recruiting employees at historically black colleges. The first woman was appointed to a top senior position at USIA during his leadership.

But the non-stop years of a heavy workload, stress of constant deadlines while working in the international spotlight, and his life-long chain smoking habit (it was estimated he smoked 60 to 65 Camel cigarettes a day) finally began to exert a toll on Murrow’s health. He suffered repeated episodes of illness; his left lung was removed due to cancer in October 1963. As his health failed, Murrow offered his resignation as USIA director to President Lyndon Johnson following Kennedy’s assassination in November. In January 1964, Johnson accepted the resignation.

Murrow retired to his farm in Pawling, New York, to live out his final days. He died at home on April 27, 1965, two days after his 57th birthday.