Edward R. Murrow

In Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason, Edward R. Murrow is invoked as an exemplar of journalism standing against fear-driven politics. The book quotes Murrow — whose courageous reporting was itself assaulted by Senator Joseph McCarthy — declaring, “We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.” Gore pairs the line with Murrow’s warning that “any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America,” using Murrow as a historical counterweight to the climate of manufactured fear the book diagnoses.

Context: Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) was an American broadcast journalist at CBS, celebrated for his WWII radio reports from London and for his 1954 television broadcasts challenging Senator Joseph McCarthy, widely credited with helping turn public opinion against McCarthyism.

Where this appears

• The Assault on Reason — quoted as a model of journalism refusing to be “driven by fear into an age of unreason” against the McCarthy assault.