Daniel Schorr - 1916-2010
(Daniel Schorr - one of the cornerstones of CBS News in the 1950's and 60's)
Most people listening to NPR the last twenty years have come to know the name Daniel Schorr as the commentator who gave sage advice and observations of an increasingly shrinking world. But if you grew up in the 1950's and 60's, Schorr was the correspondent who had first hand knowledge of the Cold War, was the first to do a live on-air interview with Nikita Khruschev and who ran afoul of Richard Nixon's White House during the Watergate era.
Schorr, like all the correspondents during that great age of reporting at CBS News, was the cool observer who reported and never spun, sought answers and shared a vast amount of knowledge. His was one of the many voices that came to be trusted in times of uncertainty.
And it was during the Cold War that Schorr had some of his greatest moments. In 1962, when tensions between the West and the Soviet Union were at their highest, Daniel Schorr reported on the newly constructed Berlin Wall, taking a crew to East Berlin in search of answers.
The result was the CBS Reports documentary Berlin: Wall of Shame, which aired on January 4, 1962. A vivid picture of just how bad relations had become between East and West.
It is doubtful we'll see or hear his kind again anytime soon. It is a tragedy that no heir apparent is on the horizon to take his place. More tragic that CBS News has become a lifeless shell of its former self. It is probably the time his words of calm and his keen observations are the most needed.
But all we can do at the moment is be reminded and perhaps strive.
RIP - Daniel Schorr.
I don't know of any other commentator today who is able to put today's issues in the context of history as Dan Schorr did.
RIP
And he told the truth. It's a real loss.
Robert Scheer at Truthdig.com
'Talk to the hand'
Oh well...at least the still got katie couric...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
was when i got to hear Mr. Schorr,hopefully he was teaching some 'pup' of a reporter on the way things should be done.or there's a grandkid. thank-you daniel.
....the fools do not realize,a population that can ,..... not paticipate .............in the 'economy'...,can not keep it viable!..........."we are listening,.......and we're not blind.,......this is your life....this is your time."
There goes my only and last reason to listen National Public Republican Radio ever again. RIP Dan.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
I wonder how much the Weekend Edition Saturday audience will shrink with the passing of Dan Schorr?
Dan's the only reason I ever tuned in.
He got fired from CNN because of "journalistic expression" issues. In other words, he refused to cave in to the corporatist slobs and hacks that were trying to control the message. Right on, Daniel. Tell those Neo-Soviet poseurs to go to hell.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
People like Schorr, Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley were from a bygone era when the news divisions were loss leaders for the networks and were not infected with gossip and innuendo and the insatiable drive for profit.
RIP Mr. Schorr
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
...long live the internet!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Every year on the anniversary of JFK's murder, he did a commentary on how it was a one man assassination--absolutely not a conspiracy. He was probably the last and only person in the US to believe it.
I didn't find his commentary in the mould of Cronkite, Brinkley, etc. Maybe a few levels down. But he fit NPR well; National Propaganda Radio. More dangerous than Fox, because Liberals actually believe it.
Award it once each year on 22nd November to the most hapless and craven MSM journalist of that year.
Maybe gold/silver/bronze categories to spin it out a bit and make it more fun.
One of these mounted on a wooden base...
The real 'magic bullet'
:-(
'Talk to the hand'
but one of the greats
hell of alot better than most of the hacks on the air today
We liberals have not regressed to the point that we just make up our own reality , truth and facts like the Reich wingers have .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
The sad truth is that Schorr would never qualify for a network spot in today's world. He wasn't pretty enough, and he understood what he was talking about. That being said, today's network news seemed purposefully designed to 'entertain', with vapid, on-location reporting (Katie Couric wearing a helmet in Afghanistan!; Brian Williams ankle deep in the Gulf!), trivial items about quirky events and teasers for 'in-depth' reporting, which point you toward some 'news special' later in the evening.
Do I miss Schorr, Cronkite, Brinkley, Sevareid, Murrow, etc. (I am of a certain age, I admit)? You bet!
"Do I miss Schorr, Cronkite, Brinkley, Sevareid, Murrow, etc. (I am of a certain age, I admit)? You bet!" Me too.
Which of the pretty faces on network or cable news can carry Schorr's water? Murrow, Conkrite, Severeid, Rather...these guys were giants in their day because they were reporters, not news readers. They made a difference. They worked when keeping the light on the powers that be was not as acutely filtered through corporate lenses. Which news media personality makes such a difference by keeping Americans and the world informed about what the heck is going on?
The person who defines Reality wins.
There are very few journalists today who begin to even approach the excellence that Mr. Schorr achieved in his career.
You will be missed, sir... and our nation is richer for your reporting and commentary over the years.
Daniel Schorr was the last of the thinking NPR breed that otherwise ended with the firing of Bob Edwards and the hiring of Inskeep. Now we have fox faux news analysts like juan williams or the really brainless palin-type cokie roberts. The rest of them (with the possible exception of Scott Simon) are news readers (3rd grade level) who interview newsmakers by reading from a written script and it's a script written and read very amateurishly, if I may say so.
Schorr was a reporter who proved you could dare to speak critically yet maintain your objectivity and credibility. What passes for "objectivity" today is the cable news platform: left-wing and right-wing ideologues, telling incredible lies at least 70% of the time, and telling them unchallenged. O'Reilly's got it about right: Today, the one who shouts the loudest wins. Schorr was soft-spoken, with a keen intellect and a fierce respect for the truth. He was the anti-Bill.
... but it's the reich-wing ideologues who are doing the lying. We reality-based, fact-embracing folks on the left don't go on the air and tell blatant lies and falsehoods.
Enough with the false equivalency, a meme all too eagerly peddled by the stenographers passing themselves off as "journalists" and "reporters" today.
BID
Daniel Schorr and Anderson "Look at Me, I'm a Serious Journalist" Cooper.
Daniel Schorr and David "I Love to Dance with Karl Rove" Gregory.
Daniel Schorr and Lara "We Must Never Question Our Infallible Generals" Logan.
You get the idea.
Aside from a few independent souls, there IS no Fourth Estate in this broken, bleeding country.
BID
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