Edward R. Murrow

Trivia

• He was awarded 2 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard and for Television at 6416 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
• A chain smoker who by his own admission could not go for thirty minutes without lighting up, he died from lung cancer two years after an operation to remove his left lung, at the age of 57.
• His last broadcast was as a participant on the program "Farewell to Studio Nine," a CBS Radio tribute to the historic CBS broadcast facility upon its closure. The program aired July 25, 1964.
• Other honors he earned in his lifetime include the 1964 award from the Society of the Family of Man; two New York Newspaper Guild awards (1954, 1955); the Russwurm Award from the American Newspaper Publishers Association; the Freedom House Award (1954); two Headliners Club awards; the National Association of Broadcasters Industry Service Award (1962); the Southwest Journalism Forum award (1953); the Adult Education Award from the New School of New York (1951); the Robert E. Sherwood Television A
• In his career, he was honored with many awards, including the Albert Einstein Award from Brandeis University; fifteen honorary degrees (including one from his alma mater, Washington State University); nine Overseas Press Club Awards (1940, 1947, 1949 {2}, 1950, 1951, 1951, 1953, 1955); the Hillman Award (1953); the Polk Award (1951, 1952); the Grammy Award (1967, Spoken Word Album); and was a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor and an officer in the Belgian Order of Leopold.
• The Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy was established at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1965.
• In 1962, He delivered the commencement address at his alma mater, Washington State University, and was given the Distinguished Alumnus Award. In his speech he spoke of US-Soviet relations and said he did not think war was inevitable.
• He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson as he left his post as director of the US Information Agency in 1964, and he also received an honorary knighthood by the British government in 1965.
• Every year, Washington State University hosts The Murrow Symposium, named in his honor.
• Portrayed by David Strathairn in 'Good Night and Good Luck'.

Quotes

• "To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful."
• "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."
• "Good night, and good luck."
• "This is London."
• "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."
• "If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality, then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the. . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom
• "This instrument [television] 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 is merely wires and lights in a box."