Word Celebrity Blog

"Edward R. Murrow was my last hero. When this nation was drowning in cowardice and demagoguery, it was Murrow who hurled the spear at the terror. The spear was his See It Now television broadcast on Senator Joe McCarthy." - by Joseph Wershba


















QUOTATIONS BY EDWARD R. MURROW

“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.”

“I don't think [that] there are two equal sides to every story.” 

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

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility."

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."

“To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.”

“There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, 'When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard'. The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.”

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive."

"A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday. All [that] I can say I've done is agitate the air ten or fifteen minutes and then boom – it's gone."

"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. 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 – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular"

"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."

"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices – just recognize them."

"Fame is morally neutral."

"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."

"Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information."

"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 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 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."

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

"We cannot make good news out of bad practice."

"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."

"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."

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men." 

"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."