One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles.

Edward R. Murrow

Categorized in : Television Dust Never Settle

American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that.

Edward R. Murrow

simple truth lying

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

Edward R. Murrow

political government sheep

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.

Edward R. Murrow

circus tvs complaining

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men ... We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

Edward R. Murrow

age home men

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another.

Edward R. Murrow

accusation law remember

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.

Edward R. Murrow

communication literature truth

We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion - a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply.

Edward R. Murrow

hysteria despair confusion

Your voice, amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other, does not confer upon you greater wisdom than when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.

Edward R. Murrow

mean-girls voice wisdom

I simply cannot accept that there are on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument.

Edward R. Murrow

two-sides views opposites

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Edward R. Murrow

liberty freedom literature

We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. 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.

Edward R. Murrow

good-luck media different

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

Edward R. Murrow

teaching war peace

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

Edward R. Murrow

problem-solving obligation mistake

To be credible we must be truthful.

Edward R. Murrow

credible being-truthful truthful

Our history will be what we make of it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge and retribution will not limp in catching up with us. So, just once in a while let us exhault the importance of ideas and information.

Edward R. Murrow

revenge goes-on ideas

This instrument [radio] can teach. It can illuminate, yes, and it can even 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.

Edward R. Murrow

light education inspire

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.

Edward R. Murrow

honesty truth integrity

If none of us ever read a book that was "dangerous," had a friend who was "different," or joined an organization that advocated "change," we would all be the kind of people Joe McCarthy wants.

Edward R. Murrow

organization book people

The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.

Edward R. Murrow

freedom work philosophy

It is well to remember that freedom through the press is the thing that comes first. Most of us probably feel we couldn't be free without newspapers, and that is the real reason we want the newspapers to be free.

Edward R. Murrow

real want firsts