Murrow’s Boys

The Irondale Ensemble revisits Murrow’s Boys, a devised theater piece from 2011, that uses the words and adventures of these intrepid reporters to investigate the questions: Is news important today, where do we get it, and why should it matter?

Legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and the “boys” (which included one girl) literally created the field of broadcast journalism by bringing the story of WW II home to Americans.

“How does art take on a world in which facts have become irrelevant, in which the President of the United States lies with impunity, and in which the plethora of damning information seems to fall on deaf ears to a world that has become numbingly inured to what is taking place?” – Jim Niesen

In 1940 Ed Murrow’s nightly reports from London were instrumental in bringing America out of its isolationism to a place where it was willing and able to join in the fight against fascism. In 1954, Murrow’s report on “See It Now” was instrumental in ending the Red Scare and the home grown tyranny of Joe McCarthy, and in 1968, following an in depth and lengthy visit to Viet Nam, Walter Cronkite delivered a damning commentary to end his nightly broadcast on the CBS Evening News. President Lyndon Johnson, watching live in the White House, reportedly then turned to aides and said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. – Edward R. Murrow