Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

I can not imagine the quick-reading biography Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards not being available as an audiobook. Its author is one of the most familiar voices from National Public Radio, and its subject was one of the most influential voices of radio journalism of the 1940s and 1950s.

As you might hope, the compact disc version of the book includes Murrow recordings. As a listener, you hear the CBS newsman report from Berlin before World War II began and from London as German bombs drop on the city. You also hear him take on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his campaign to eradicate anyone "soft on communism" just at the moment the legislator seems to have Congress and much of the Eisenhower administration under his thumb. Edwards explains the significance of the broadcasts and the legacy of a man whose career was cut short by cancer. The best part is Edwards telling behind-the-scene stories gathered from Murrow's contemporaries.

As a tribute to a pioneer who made the author's career possible, Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism is mostly laudatory. It can be enjoyed by commuters and students alike.

Edwards, Bob. Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism. Tantor media, 2004. 4 compact discs. ISBN 1400101360