:03:01
He is the host of our enormously
popular show "Person to Person"...
:03:06
...and tonight he is here
with his son, Casey...
:03:09
...wife, Janet, and all of you
who he's worked with...
:03:12
...inspired, lectured, and taught.
:03:16
Ladies and gentlemen...
:03:18
...the Radio-Television News Directors'
Association and Foundation welcomes...
:03:22
...Mr. Edward R. Murrow.
:03:44
This might just do nobody any good.
:03:47
At the end of this discourse
a few people may accuse this reporter...
:03:50
...of fouling
his own comfortable nest...
:03:53
...and your organization may be
accused of having given hospitality...
:03:56
...to heretical
and even dangerous ideas.
:04:00
But the elaborate structure
of networks...
:04:02
...advertising agencies, and sponsors
will not be shaken or altered.
:04:06
It is my desire, if not my duty,
to try to talk to you journeymen...
:04:10
...with some candor about what
is happening to radio andtelevision.
:04:13
And if what I say is responsible...
:04:15
...I alone am responsible
for the saying ofit.
:04:19
Our history will be
what we make of it.
:04:22
And if there are any historians
about 50 or 100 years from now...
:04:26
...and there should be preserved...
:04:27
...the kinescopes of one week
of all three networks...
:04:30
...they will there find recorded
in black and white, and in color...
:04:34
...evidence of decadence,
escapism...
:04:36
...and insulation from the realities
of the world in which we live.
:04:40
We are currently wealthy, fat,
comfortable, and complacent.
:04:45
We have a built-in allergy to
unpleasant or disturbing information.
:04:49
Our mass media reflect this.
:04:52
But unless we get up off
our fat surpluses...
:04:54
...and recognize
that television in the main...
:04:57
...is being used to distract, delude,
amuse, and insulate us...