Ed Murrow (1908-1965)

Sat wating for M to come back from work - she's recently changed job and now does 3 12 hour shifts a week - hard but giving her 4 whole free days per week. Listening to yesterdays Desert Island Discs which featured the wonderful Hugh Laurie Im searching back through my most recent perambulations which ended after Nunhead with a bus and tube ride to Bond Street and then a wandering N of Oxford Street where I came across a bit of bumper blue plaque crop among which was one dedicated to Ed Murrow who lived throughout the war in a flat on Hallam Street. His broadcasts showing a reluctant America the reality of the blitz, he also flew 25 missions over Europe recording what he saw and felt. His broadcasts were bookended by the words "This..is London" and "Good night and good luck" the title of the fictionalisde 2005 movie of his experiences of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, his editorials on CBS (a network he stayed with for the entirity of his career) developed into a regular spot called "See it now" and his criticisms of Senator McCarthy were aired in 1954 and contribued to a nationwide backlash against the Red Scare. I wonder what he would have thought of the current bunch of craven corporate shills masquerading as newsmen? Im not going to explain my stance on journalism, suffice to say that Mr Rupert Murdoch is not welcome in this house. I'm not sure which dismays me more - the journos or the politicians who are reduced to 2 second soundbites who live in fear of the aforementioned journos. I normally watch the 7 o'clock news on Channel 4, I can live with Auntie beeb but perhaps as a result of their status as the national broadcasters they are at least to me a horribly deferential outfit - slavishly lapping up the latest royal goss. Channel 4 at least do bring a little depth to current events.