To those who are not old enough to remember the days of real journalism — the mid-20th-century reporting of Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, Eric Sevareid, Edward R. Murrow, and their contemporaries — I can only offer my condolences. You missed so much.

Murrow first became known as a war correspondent during World War II, when he broadcast live from Europe for CBS News. Later, his investigative news reports helped to end the mad witch-hunt instigated by Senator Joseph McCarthy who, during the “Red Scare” years following the war, imagined a communist in every closet and under every bed.

Ed Murrow was one of the greatest in an era of great journalism — honest, objective, straightforward reporting, free of political or personal bias. His career has been memorialized in several films, including the outstanding “Good Night, and Good Luck” — the signature sign-off phrase for his wartime broadcasts.

He left this world much too soon, literally smoking himself to death — reportedly on three packs of Camel cigarettes a day — at the age of just 57. But he left behind a legacy that today’s journalists could only dream of matching.

And included among Murrow’s bits of timeless wisdom, so meaningful today, is this:

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

You know what — and who — I mean. And so, on that thought, as Murrow would have said, I bid you . . .

“Good night, and good luck.”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/3/25