Murrow Boys

The Murrow Boys, or Murrow's Boys, were the CBS radio broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his time at the network, most notably in the years before and during World War II.

Murrow recruited a number of newsmen and women to CBS during his years as a correspondent, European news chief, and executive. The "Boys" were his closest professional and personal associates. They also shared Murrow's preference for incisive, thought-provoking coverage of public affairs, abroad and at home. They achieved nationwide fame, and inadvertently became early examples of "celebrity journalism" in the days of radio and early television news.

The individuals most often cited as Murrow Boys are those who worked for and with him covering the war for the CBS Radio Network. Many of his World War II recruits came from the United Press news agency, and several lacked radio experience. Their story is the subject of the 1996 book The Murrow Boys, by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson.

The nickname's origins are unclear. Cloud and Olson interviewed Janet Murrow and set out to determine who exactly fell under the definition of a "Murrow Boy". They primarily included those hired by or associated with Murrow during World War II, with some exceptions.

The initial team of war correspondents was assigned to fronts across Europe, and frequently appeared on the CBS World News Roundup, which Murrow and Shirer pioneered in 1938. The original Boys, and some of their notable CBS beats during the war, included:

Several Murrow Boys were assigned to accompany Allied forces on D-Day. Hottelet rode along in a bomber over Utah Beach at H-Hour, the initial phase of the invasion. Collingwood and Gene Ryder covered Utah Beach, as did Larry LeSueur from a separate landing craft, while Downs covered Gold Beach. All three had difficulty finding working mobile transmitters, and no correspondents of any network were able to report live from the Normandy front until over a week after the initial landings.

Of the original Boys, Hottelet had the longest career at CBS, joining the network in 1944 remaining there until 1985. He was the last surviving member of the original group.

The group maintained close ties with Murrow but not necessarily each other. They had significant autonomy in filing reports, and while they had been influential in developing the field of radio news broadcasting, they were reluctant to make the transition to television. The Murrow Boys earned far more working in radio than they could in television, and they resented the process of lights, cameras, makeup, and other aspects of TV broadcasting. By the 1950s their dominating presence in the field had begun to decline.