Seeing It Now: An Exclusive Chat With Ed Murrow

It was Friday night, the end of another frustrating week on the television beat, and to get my head together, I had a chat with Edward R. Murrow.

You know, the legendary Murrow? The first great broadcast journalist? Symbolically, at least, the father of CBS News? Revered icon and hero of the dwindling few in TV news who make impeccable standards and integrity their first priority? Murrow, who died in 1965?

Sometimes we talk, the historical perspective gained from these imaginary dialogues with someone I respect helping me make better sense of events in the present.

*

HR: Keeping busy?

ERM: Well, aside from the welcoming gala for Mel Allen, I’ve had plenty of time on my hands, more than enough to watch the news on television.

HR: And?

ERM: As you know, I had my own conflicts with the business, even in the old days. No one knows more than I about its excesses and shifting morality. I made my own compromises, and I’m certainly not proud of all I did on TV. Yet, what I’m seeing today--I’ve got one of those big satellite dishes that picks up everything--disturbs me greatly. The most recent downer was coverage of all that Hillary Clinton stuff.

HR: You mean relentless reports of the first lady having imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt and Indian leader Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi under the guidance of the ambiguous Jean Houston, who has been described as a leader in the new age/human potential movement? The stories based on excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new book, “The Choice”? Some of the smirkiest coverage pleasing her enemies by making it seem--despite her claims this was just an intellectual exercise--that she was having trance-like seances while holding hands with a swami from the Psychic Friends Network?

ERM: I see you’ve been watching, too. So, you realize that the media attention being paid to this obscure, insignificant incident detailed by Woodward is just astounding. As if there were something bizarre about speaking to those who have died--whether for comfort, inspiration or whatever.

HR: Isn’t it done all the time?

ERM: Exactly. I ran into George Burns the other day--he was just settling in--and is he hot about the Hillary coverage. Almost made him swallow his cigar. He told me that he used to talk to his beloved Gracie all the time after she died because it made him feel good, always told reporters about it every time he did an interview, even talked to her on camera for TV, right there at her tomb. And no one thought he was daft.

HR: Quite the opposite, actually. Everyone thought his chats with Gracie were sweet and touching. And come to think of it, don’t people, especially devoutly religious Christians, speak to God all the time? And sometimes don’t they report that God has spoken to them?

ERM: Absolutely. And it really happens. I’ve heard it directly from God’s own lips.

HR: You actually run into God?

ERM: Only occasionally, at official functions and things like that. Otherwise, she pretty much keeps to herself.

HR: Getting back to the coverage, exactly what about it irritates you?

ERM: Firstly, that there’s been so much, the very bulk of it conveying a kind of importance--reflecting poorly on the Clinton administration--that’s undeserved. And it’s the way the story’s been reported, too. It’s not that anyone in the mainstream media has openly mocked Hillary, but they indirectly ridicule her when they appear to belittle this Houston woman. Now, you take that recent “Dateline NBC” piece on Houston reported by Stone Phillips. It wasn’t anything that the story said, but it had a tone, an attitude that created the impression Houston was a flake. And if she was a flake, and Hillary relied on her, what did that say about the first lady? It may be true that she and her husband haven’t earned another term in the White House, but, if so, Jean Houston isn’t the reason.

HR: Gotcha. But has there been any coverage of this story that you found laudatory?

ERM: Well, it’ll surprise you, but Larry King was terrific.

HR: “Larry King Live” on CNN? King, who doesn’t even pretend to be a journalist?

ERM: That’s right. But it doesn’t matter. Take a look at Thursday night’s show, when Houston was the guest for the first half-hour, and you’ll see what I mean.

*

(Watching a tape of the show affirmed King’s adroit handling of Houston’s appearance. She was perfect for King’s conversational style. No cheap shots or snide leers from him. He treated her respectfully, not as a loony, and even suggested that he have his own “conversation” with a dead person on the air, allowing viewers to see the process themselves instead of having to rely on secondhand accounts.

King picked Arthur Godfrey, dead since 1983, someone he had known and admired, a folksy, redheaded, freckled broadcasting superstar of the 1950s who, like King, starred both on radio and TV.

And so it went, with King asking questions, as himself, and responding as Godfrey in a voice loosely Godfrey-esque. “Arthur, what do you make of what’s happened to broadcasting?” King asked. “I’m surprised,” King answered as Godfrey. “I never would have dreamed I could be on 500 channels.”

King also asked Godfrey what he thought of King. “I would say you’re on the right course,” King/Godfrey replied. “You got a nice niche here at CNN. I would say, take the show out more, go overseas more. . . .”

Well, it was television, a show in front of cameras, and what it achieved for King (will he now be beaming himself to us from abroad?) was never apparent. Yet it did expose viewers to a capsule of what Hillary Clinton apparently had participated in with Houston, removing some of the fog and fantasy. It seemed a bit silly, but thanks to King, never freakish.)

*

ERM: Yet, in the past you’ve been pretty hard on King in your column.

HR: You read my column? I’m flabbergasted. I’m flattered. And I’m dying to know what you think about it.

ERM: Don’t ask.

HR: Just the same, can we talk again sometime?

ERM: Sure, but wait a few weeks. I’m busy housecleaning. Mel Allen is bunking with me until he gets his own place, and he’s really a slob.