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This I Believe
This I Believe was originally a five-minute program, hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955 on CBS Radio Network. The show encouraged both famous and everyday people to write short essays about their own personal motivation in life and then read them on the air. This I Believe became a cultural phenomenon that stressed individual belief rather than religious dogma. Its popularity both developed and waned within the era of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Cold War.
Since then, a variety of revivals have been hosted on different networks. A half-hour European version of This I Believe ran from 1956 to 1958 over Radio Luxembourg. It has since been revived numerous times in recent years, first by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison on NPR from 2005 to 2009, and subsequently by Preston Manning on Canada's CBC Radio One in 2007. Essays that appear on the show are available free of charge at its website.
Since 2009, the original This I Believe programs have been syndicated as part of PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend.
The idea for This I Believe flowed from both the WWII broadcasting experiences of Edward R. Murrow, who had spent the latter 1930s and most of the 1940s in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, and the emerging Cold War hostility with the Soviet Union.
During Murrow's stay in London he had become a friend of the World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had an American mother and British father, and this enabled him to introduce Churchill to William S. Paley, who was his boss at CBS. During the war Paley spent much of his time in London working in the Psychological Warfare Branch of the Office of War Information (OWI), which included redirecting the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg following the liberation of the Grand Duchy, for use as a black propaganda station (Radio 1212). Meanwhile, Murrow had "covered the London air raids from the streets and rooftops ...went on 25 bombing missions over Germany and broadcast from a British minesweeper in World War II." This close relationship between Murrow, Paley, CBS and the British Establishment led to an offer after the war for Murrow to become part of the editorial diarchy at the British Broadcasting Corporation, an offer that was not endorsed by the BBC Board of Directors.
Murrow returned to the US which was in a growing Cold War with its former WWII partner, the Soviet Union. During these years of the late 1940s and early 1950s, political paranoia involving a Communist conspiracy was flowing from Washington, D.C., and it eventually came to be led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Paley, with his CBS/OWI background, also became a firm supporter of the new Central Intelligence Agency after the war and allowed some of his part-time CBS newsmen to serve as CIA agents. His own Paley Foundation also became engaged in laundering money for the CIA and Paley allowed the creation of a CBS blacklist and Murrow was among the first to sign a CBS loyalty affirmation. At the same time the Pledge of Allegiance was being repackaged amid controversy as a general test of American loyalty at large, and it was into this climate of fear and agitation that Murrow introduced his new radio program: This I Believe.
Murrow's style of presentation had been influenced by a teacher of speech named Ida Lou Anderson. She suggested that he should become more concise in his opening presentations on radio. Cesar Saerchinger, his predecessor at CBS Europe had introduced his broadcasts with: "Hello America. This is London calling." Murrow abbreviated his own opening remarks to "This...is London" and he soon began adapting the prefix "this" to many titles including "This... I Believe". James Earl Jones became one of many to adopt the Murrow style when he later announced: "This...is CNN". Murrow was not without his critics at CBS, and some of his colleagues had formed their own "Murrow-Ain't-God Club"
According to Ward Wheelock who wrote a preface to the 1952 book, This I Believe was launched in 1949 at a business luncheon of four men, Murrow being one, with the other three left unnamed. He related that the reasons for the project "were obvious":
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This I Believe
This I Believe was originally a five-minute program, hosted by journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1951 to 1955 on CBS Radio Network. The show encouraged both famous and everyday people to write short essays about their own personal motivation in life and then read them on the air. This I Believe became a cultural phenomenon that stressed individual belief rather than religious dogma. Its popularity both developed and waned within the era of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Cold War.
Since then, a variety of revivals have been hosted on different networks. A half-hour European version of This I Believe ran from 1956 to 1958 over Radio Luxembourg. It has since been revived numerous times in recent years, first by Dan Gediman and Jay Allison on NPR from 2005 to 2009, and subsequently by Preston Manning on Canada's CBC Radio One in 2007. Essays that appear on the show are available free of charge at its website.
Since 2009, the original This I Believe programs have been syndicated as part of PRI's Bob Edwards Weekend.
The idea for This I Believe flowed from both the WWII broadcasting experiences of Edward R. Murrow, who had spent the latter 1930s and most of the 1940s in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, and the emerging Cold War hostility with the Soviet Union.
During Murrow's stay in London he had become a friend of the World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had an American mother and British father, and this enabled him to introduce Churchill to William S. Paley, who was his boss at CBS. During the war Paley spent much of his time in London working in the Psychological Warfare Branch of the Office of War Information (OWI), which included redirecting the transmitters of Radio Luxembourg following the liberation of the Grand Duchy, for use as a black propaganda station (Radio 1212). Meanwhile, Murrow had "covered the London air raids from the streets and rooftops ...went on 25 bombing missions over Germany and broadcast from a British minesweeper in World War II." This close relationship between Murrow, Paley, CBS and the British Establishment led to an offer after the war for Murrow to become part of the editorial diarchy at the British Broadcasting Corporation, an offer that was not endorsed by the BBC Board of Directors.
Murrow returned to the US which was in a growing Cold War with its former WWII partner, the Soviet Union. During these years of the late 1940s and early 1950s, political paranoia involving a Communist conspiracy was flowing from Washington, D.C., and it eventually came to be led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. Paley, with his CBS/OWI background, also became a firm supporter of the new Central Intelligence Agency after the war and allowed some of his part-time CBS newsmen to serve as CIA agents. His own Paley Foundation also became engaged in laundering money for the CIA and Paley allowed the creation of a CBS blacklist and Murrow was among the first to sign a CBS loyalty affirmation. At the same time the Pledge of Allegiance was being repackaged amid controversy as a general test of American loyalty at large, and it was into this climate of fear and agitation that Murrow introduced his new radio program: This I Believe.
Murrow's style of presentation had been influenced by a teacher of speech named Ida Lou Anderson. She suggested that he should become more concise in his opening presentations on radio. Cesar Saerchinger, his predecessor at CBS Europe had introduced his broadcasts with: "Hello America. This is London calling." Murrow abbreviated his own opening remarks to "This...is London" and he soon began adapting the prefix "this" to many titles including "This... I Believe". James Earl Jones became one of many to adopt the Murrow style when he later announced: "This...is CNN". Murrow was not without his critics at CBS, and some of his colleagues had formed their own "Murrow-Ain't-God Club"
According to Ward Wheelock who wrote a preface to the 1952 book, This I Believe was launched in 1949 at a business luncheon of four men, Murrow being one, with the other three left unnamed. He related that the reasons for the project "were obvious":