Radio's Revolution

CBS Views the Press ranks as one of the most important radio programs in U.S. journalism history. The pet project of Edward R. Murrow, Don Hollenbeck’s fifteen-minute program aired weekly over WCBS in New York City from 1947 to 1950 and won a Peabody, a George Polk and other major journalism awards. The provocative program was broadcasting’s Declaration of Independence from newspapers—the first time a network dared trade roles with the powerful press to become the critic of newspapers, not merely the subject of newspapers’ criticism. Radio’s Revolution brings together twenty historically significant transcripts of CBS Views the Press, with Loren Ghiglione providing the historical context and insight into Hollenbeck’s approach.

 

Hollenbeck tackled the toughest topics, from racism to McCarthyism, and many in the media applauded his conscience and courage. But powerful New York newspapers, including William Randolph Hearst’s flagship Journal-American, attacked Hollenbeck’s program as pro-Communist and anticonservative. In 1954 Hollenbeck got caught in the middle of the televised confrontation between CBS’s Murrow and Senator Joe McCarthy. Still under assault by Hearst columnists, separated from his third wife, worried about losing his job at CBS, and suffering from alcoholism and depression, Hollenbeck killed himself.