A Warning: Edward R. Murrow's Fearless Speech

Good morning, subscribers. Like a bite-sized brownie, today’s post is short and sweet. It’s a treasure I found stored with all the material I’ve posted here for the last 8 years—since 2015 when this blog was born. Published on Sunday, July 21, 2019, I believe it’s even more relevant today than then. Here’s the gist of it.

A free press: a hallmark of democracy

I am not a journalist, but I have friends who are. I greatly admire investigative journalists who lay their lives and reputations on the line to get a story right and tell it. A free press is a hallmark of democracy. Let’s not forget that. On a personal note, one of my favorite sources for such reporting is The Atlantic magazine.

In 1954, the famed journalist Edward R. Murrow warned us about how vital it is to guard democracy. At that time, I was only two years old. Because I was a toddler, I was totally unaware of what was going on in my country. Today I’m grown up and trying to pay attention and make sense of the fraught society I live in here in the US. It ain’t easy—my head spins like that girl’s in The Exorcist. How about you?

So, thank you Mr. Murrow for speaking and writing without fear, and for exhorting us to do the same. You set an extraordinary example.

In the following clip of his speech, one of my favorite lines is, “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

Listen to Murrow here.

Until next time … good night and good luck, as Mr. Murrow used to say.

Thanks for reading!

Your writer on the wing,
Charlene

P.S. If you don’t already know, I am not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram. You can always find me here at https://charleneedge.com