CBS News

CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. Along with ABC News and NBC News, it has long been among the big three broadcast news networks in the United States.

CBS News television programs include CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings, news magazine programs CBS News Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours, and Sunday morning political affairs program Face the Nation. CBS News Radio produces hourly newscasts for hundreds of radio stations, and also oversees CBS News podcasts like The Takeout Podcast. CBS News also operates CBS News 24/7, a 24-hour digital news network.

In 1929, the Columbia Broadcasting System began making regular radio news broadcasts, which were five-minute summaries taken from reports from United Press, one of the three wire services that supplied newspapers with national and international news. In December 1930, CBS chief William S. Paley hired journalist Paul W. White away from United Press as CBS's news editor. Paley put the radio network's news operation at the same level as entertainment, and authorized White to interrupt programming if events warranted. Along with other networks, CBS chafed at the breaking news embargo imposed upon radio by the wire services, which prevented them from using bulletins until they first appeared in print. CBS disregarded an embargo when it broke the story of the Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932, using live on-the-air reporting. Radio networks scooped print outlets with news of the 1932 presidential election.

In March 1933, White was named vice president and general manager in charge of news at CBS. As the first head of CBS News, he began to build an organization that soon established a legendary reputation.

In 1935, White hired Edward R. Murrow, and sent him to London in 1937 to run CBS Radio's European operation. White led a staff that would come to include Richard C. Hottelet, Charles Collingwood, William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Bill Downs, John Charles Daly, Joseph C. Harsch, Cecil Brown, Elmer Davis, Quincy Howe, H. V. Kaltenborn, Robert Trout, and Lewis Shollenberger.

"CBS was getting its ducks in a row for the biggest news story in history, World War II", wrote radio historian John Dunning.

In 1940, William S. Paley recruited Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for Latin America at the Associated Press to coordinate the development of the international shortwave radio Network of the Americas, called La Cadena de las Américas, in 1942. Broadcasting in concert with the assistance of the Department of State, the Office for Inter-American Affairs chaired by Nelson Rockefeller and Voice of America as part of President Roosevelt's support for Pan-Americanism, this CBS radio network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout South America and Central America during the World War II era.

Through its operations in 20 nations, it fostered benevolent diplomatic relations between the United States and other nations in the region while providing an alternative to Nazi propaganda.