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Daniel Schorr
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Daniel Schorr
Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.
Schorr was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Tillie Godiner and Gedaliah Tchornemoretz. He began his journalism career at the age of 13, when he came upon a woman who had jumped or fallen from the roof of his apartment building. After calling the police, he phoned The Bronx Home News and was paid $5 for his information.
He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the West Bronx, where he worked on the Clinton News, the school paper. He graduated from City College of New York in 1939 while working for the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Schorr also worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a chief news editor from 1934 to 1948. During World War II, Schorr served in Army Intelligence at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
In January 1967, he married Lisbeth Bamberger, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.
Following several years as a stringer, including bylines in The New York Times, which led to a tryout but no job despite repeated attempts, in 1953 he joined CBS News as one of the recruits of Edward R. Murrow (becoming part of the later generation of Murrow's Boys). In 1955, with the post-Stalin thaw in the Soviet Union, he received accreditation to open a CBS bureau in Moscow. In June 1957, he obtained an exclusive interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party chief. It aired on CBS's Face the Nation, Schorr's first television interview. Schorr left the Soviet Union later that year, because of Soviet censorship laws. When he applied for a new visa, it was denied by the Soviets.
In January 1962, he aired the first examination of everyday life under communism in East Germany, The Land Beyond the Wall: Three Weeks in a German City, which the Times called a "journalistic coup". After agreeing not to foster "propaganda" for the United States, Schorr was granted the rights to conduct the interviews in Rostock. By airing everyday life, Schorr painted a picture of the necessity for a communist state to seal itself off from the West in order to survive.
President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of State Dean Rusk criticized Schorr's actions in an August 10, 1962, diplomatic cable for a checkbook journalism story in which, "Schorr involved himself in a matter which was far beyond his private or journalistic responsibilities and proceeded amateurishly in a matter filled with greatest danger for all concerned. As we anticipated, [the] other side turned out to be fully aware of the matter and laid a trap which could have resulted in [a] massacre [of] those involved." A meeting with the State Department over the matter recorded in a cable stated, "Schorr appeared chastened by fact that a plan which was to be his greatest achievement had failed. He did not give slightest appearance of being contrite."
In 1964, Schorr reported—inaccurately— that right-wing Germans were enthusiastic about presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, and that Goldwater had planned a postconvention trip mainly involving an American military recreation center in Berchtesgaden, site of a favorite Hitler retreat.
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Daniel Schorr
Daniel Louis Schorr (August 31, 1916 – July 23, 2010) was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.
Schorr was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Tillie Godiner and Gedaliah Tchornemoretz. He began his journalism career at the age of 13, when he came upon a woman who had jumped or fallen from the roof of his apartment building. After calling the police, he phoned The Bronx Home News and was paid $5 for his information.
He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the West Bronx, where he worked on the Clinton News, the school paper. He graduated from City College of New York in 1939 while working for the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Schorr also worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as a chief news editor from 1934 to 1948. During World War II, Schorr served in Army Intelligence at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
In January 1967, he married Lisbeth Bamberger, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.
Following several years as a stringer, including bylines in The New York Times, which led to a tryout but no job despite repeated attempts, in 1953 he joined CBS News as one of the recruits of Edward R. Murrow (becoming part of the later generation of Murrow's Boys). In 1955, with the post-Stalin thaw in the Soviet Union, he received accreditation to open a CBS bureau in Moscow. In June 1957, he obtained an exclusive interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Communist Party chief. It aired on CBS's Face the Nation, Schorr's first television interview. Schorr left the Soviet Union later that year, because of Soviet censorship laws. When he applied for a new visa, it was denied by the Soviets.
In January 1962, he aired the first examination of everyday life under communism in East Germany, The Land Beyond the Wall: Three Weeks in a German City, which the Times called a "journalistic coup". After agreeing not to foster "propaganda" for the United States, Schorr was granted the rights to conduct the interviews in Rostock. By airing everyday life, Schorr painted a picture of the necessity for a communist state to seal itself off from the West in order to survive.
President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of State Dean Rusk criticized Schorr's actions in an August 10, 1962, diplomatic cable for a checkbook journalism story in which, "Schorr involved himself in a matter which was far beyond his private or journalistic responsibilities and proceeded amateurishly in a matter filled with greatest danger for all concerned. As we anticipated, [the] other side turned out to be fully aware of the matter and laid a trap which could have resulted in [a] massacre [of] those involved." A meeting with the State Department over the matter recorded in a cable stated, "Schorr appeared chastened by fact that a plan which was to be his greatest achievement had failed. He did not give slightest appearance of being contrite."
In 1964, Schorr reported—inaccurately— that right-wing Germans were enthusiastic about presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, and that Goldwater had planned a postconvention trip mainly involving an American military recreation center in Berchtesgaden, site of a favorite Hitler retreat.
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