dimanche 9 novembre 2008

Goodnight and Good Luck

"..This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box..." 

We tend to think that the tensions between shareholders and journalists are new, that the battle to protect serious journalism and its noble ideals from commercial dumbing down is a fresh one; however it was ever thus.  This year sees the 50th anniversary of a seminal speech at the RTNDA convention given by Ed Murrow, widely regarded by historians as one of the greatest pioneers of television news journalism in the last century.  Thanks to SacredFacts for flagging this one up.


1 commentaire:

Shadow Blogger a dit…

Yep! The old eminence grise, Diogenes-with-lantern and conscience of CBS is spinning in his proverbial you know what!