To the editor 鈥 Edward R. Morrow was a decorated frontline combat correspondent defending press freedom. His theatres of war were our daily newspapers and television newscasts.
He believed that "A nation of sheep will begat a government of wolves," and that, "There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference."
On March 9, 1954, in his CBS-TV show, "See It Now," he addressed unsubstantiated accusations by Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, of Communist infiltration into our government:
"The actions," Murrow said, "have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. He didn't create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it. Cassius was right. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves. Good night and good luck."
McCarthy was censured by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 2, 1954.
If we allow print journalists and television reporters to be shackled by a vacuous, self-dealing, morally bankrupt president, empowered by a corrupted Supreme Court, funded by circling rapacious billionaire equity fund vultures, we end up staring at "... merely wires and lights in a box," and skimming newspapers too thin even to insulate outhouse walls.
JOHN EUTENEIER
Nile Valley
