Broadcast Journalist Edward R. Murrow On Heretics

"I've always been on the side of the heretics against those who burned them, because the heretics so often proved to be right. Dead--but right!"--Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), CBS broadcast journalist.

Some Wise Words

In a 1950s Person to Person interview on television, the actress Gertrude Berg (of The Goldbergs TV and radio series), recounted to Edward R. Murrow, the host, a conversation between her character Molly Goldberg and Jake, Molly's husband: "One day, Molly," promised Jake, "we will eat from golden plates." To which Molly replied, "Jake, dear, would the food taste any better?"


Note: I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

The High Cost Of Moviegoing

October 4, 2005

To the Editor:

I recently went to an afternoon press screening of Good Night, and Good Luck* and was relieved not to be bombarded in the first fifteen minutes with commercials and [trailers for] coming-attractions  as I would have been in a regular movie theatre. Now I read  that the E!channel is packaging celebrity news and gossip to add to this mix because of its lucrativeness. If this "pre-show entertainment" is such a moneymaker ($458 million), how come the ticket prices keep going up?

Sincerely yours,

Charles Michael Smith

*Note: This film is about CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's on-air confrontation with the anti-Communist senator from Wisconsin Joe McCarthy, whose questionable tactics Murrow opposed.

I found a handwritten draft of this letter which was never sent. The draft does not indicate which publication I had in mind when I wrote it.