Edward L. Bliss, Jr.: broadcast journalist, author, teacher.

In 2002, one of the second generation of "Murrow's Boys" passed away at the age of 90. He was Edward L. Bliss, Jr., and he wrote and edited the news at CBS for the men he called "broadcast journalism's two giants"--Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite (Hilliard & Keith, 1992, p. 137). He served as the exemplar of the practitioner-teacher, and was coauthor of one of the classic broadcast journalism texts and sole author of a comprehensive history of radio and television news. He remained active after "retirement," teaching workshops in news writing and penning two nonbroadcast-related books.

Ed Bliss's contributions to the practice and study of broadcasting cover three areas: (a) the work and legacy of Edward R. Murrow, for whom he wrote and edited; (b) broadcast writing, which he did from 1943 until 1968, and then formally taught until 1977; and (c) the history of broadcast journalism, which he lived. Here I offer a look at his careers as broadcast journalist, educator, and author.

Bliss at CBS

The original "anchorman," Walter Cronkite, introduced Ed Bliss at the Radio-Television News Directors Association's (RTNDA's) Paul White Award dinner in 1993 as "simply one of the greatest--perhaps the greatest--of broadcast editors." At CBS, where he perfected the art of writing news for broadcast, Bliss's colleagues knew him for his "excellent writing skills, news judgment, and integrity" (Freeman, 1989, p. 53). These qualities, coupled with a gentle spirit, made Bliss an outstanding educator during his second career.

Like many early broadcast journalists, Bliss began his news career in print. He first worked at a small town newspaper in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1935. Bliss had graduated from Yale that year; he originally majored in premed to follow in his doctorfather's footsteps but decided to go into journalism instead (M. Murray, 1994). In 1936, he moved on to a paper in Columbus, serving as reporter and state editor (Freeman, 1989).

Bliss ended up in New York in 1943 and was offered a job as writer at CBS (its previous holder went to war). From 1945 to 1955, he served as night editor, proofing all copy, including that of Edward R. Murrow, who invited him to join his staff in 1955. Bliss became known as Murrow's "hard news" writer (E. Murray, 1999, p. 20). He wrote the news summary of the esteemed journalist's nightly 15-minute radio broadcast, "Edward R. Murrow and the News," and in 1960 produced "Background," Murrow's weekly radio program (Edwards, 2004).

After Murrow left for the United States Information Agency in 1961, Bliss stayed at CBS, working with renowned producer Fred Friendly "doing anything and everything" except going on air (M. Murray, 1994, p. 220). During the early 1960s, he served as part of the "CBS Reports" documentary team, and then as assistant to CBS News President Richard Salant (Freeman, 1989). His most demanding assignment during those years, he recalled, was producing a half-hour documentary for Frank Stanton in 1962. The program on the "Rayburn Rule," which banned cameras and microphones during public hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives, aired on only one station in Texas before CBS head William Paley "killed it" (M. Murray, 1994, p. 221).

In September 1963, when CBS launched its half-hour evening TV newscast, Walter Cronkite asked Bliss to serve as his news editor. Freeman (1989) describes Bliss's role: "He sat at arm's length from Cronkite, just out of camera range, prepared to hand over a late-breaking story, update, or rewrite" (p. 53). When Kennedy was shot, Bliss screened all copy before Cronkite read it on air to avoid redundancy--he handed the anchor the final confirmation that the President was dead (M. Murray, 1994). At Cronkite's side until 1968, Bliss left CBS for American University in Washington, DC, where he would found its broadcast journalism program and teach its first course in broadcast news ("In Memoriam," 2003).

Bliss as Educator

"Many of his colleagues thought Bliss had the makings of an excellent teacher," writes Gates (1978) in Air Time: The Inside Story of CBS News (p. 203). "In working with Bliss," Gates continues, "writers hated to make mistakes because they caused him visible grief" (p. 204).

Referring to Bliss's new career as teacher, John Merriman, the man who would succeed him as Cronkite's editor, said Bliss's gentle disposition was his one flaw: "Imagine what a shock it will be for those kids when they get out in the real world and discover how awful the rest of us are compared to Ed Bliss" (Gates, 1978, p. 203).

Bliss's approach to teaching was "to try to impress students with responsibility, first of all, and writing, clear writing, for good communication" (M. Murray, 1994, p. 223). Of his teaching style, former students would say that he was tough on copy, but not on people. These people included Bob Edwards (2004) of National Public Radio, who dedicated his book Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism to the memory of Ed and Lois Bliss, writing, "Though a very sweet man, Ed was the toughest editor I've ever known, intolerant of imperfection" (p. xii). Deborah Potter (2003), the former CBS reporter, in American Journalism Review attests to Bliss's legacy and influence: "Many of Ed's former students, myself included, can't write a line without thinking of whether he would approve.... Even today, he makes our work better" (p. 56).

At American University, Bliss secured time on the campus radio station for student newscasts, providing a learning laboratory in which future newscasters could practice, literally, their craft (E. Murray, 1999). It was during his time as a university professor he wrote Writing News for Broadcast with John M. Patterson, first published in 1971. After retiring in 1977 as full professor (Block, 2002), Bliss remained active as a news consultant for CBS, PBS, NPR, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and local stations across the United States (Freeman, 1989). In 1977, he received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. More awards followed in later years, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Educator Award in 1984, now named in honor of Ed Bliss; the RTNDA's Paul White Award for lifetime achievement in electronic journalism in 1993; and the Distinguished Service in Local Journalism Award from the Washington, DC, chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2002.

In 1987, at the RTNDA convention in Orlando, I had the good fortune to meet (accost, really) Ed Bliss. I was a graduate student who taught radio news at the University of Florida, and used Writing for Broadcast to prepare lectures and course materials. When I approached him and told him I taught broadcast news and used his text, his face lit up, and he gave me a warm smile. "Don't you just enjoyteaching?" he asked. I also recall his speech at that convention, in which he admonished network news organizations for not using proper punctuation in their graphics. As Bob Edwards noted in his tribute to Bliss on Morning Edition in 2002, "There were no small mistakes with Ed. All mistakes were equally bad." His uncompromising standards were influenced, no doubt, by what he learned from Edward R. Murrow.

The Murrow Standard

Murrow was already legend by the time Ed Bliss met him in 1946 (Bliss, 1975). When the Murrow boys returned after World War II, Bliss recalls, "We regarded all these guys as heroes when they came back" (Cloud & Olson, 1996, p. 244). In 1948, Bliss came to know Murrow better through his work as night editor. In his introduction to In Search of Light (Murrow, 1967), Bliss recounted how he was impressed by the gratitude Murrow showed him when mistakes were caught. "Good catch," Murrow would say (p. xiv). Bliss was in awe of Murrow, despite working with and for him for many years as writer and producer, and for 4 years as associate producer of "Years in Crisis," the year-round roundup show on world issues (Cloud & Olson, 1996). He would later say it prevented him from discussing and learning more about world issues; Murrow's reputation got in the way (Keith, 2001).

For Bliss, the Murrow standard encompassed both high ethics, in terms of integrity and the separation of news from commercial influence and ratings, and high quality of reporting and writing. "Writing for Murrow meant avoiding the use of adjectives," Bliss recalled in an interview published in the Journal of Radio Studies (Keith, 2001, p. 60). Accuracy, fairness, clarity, and conciseness came to mark the Bliss style.

Reflective of the high regard Murrow held for him, Janet Murrow asked Bliss to edit a book of her late husband's broadcasts (Freeman, 1989). Editing Murrow's radio and television scripts for In Search of Light, published in 1967, was for Bliss "a high honor and fearsome responsibility" (p. xiv). Bliss prepared Murrow's scripts from 1938 to 1961 for publication; they included his famous broadcasts from London during the blitz, the liberation of Buchenwald, and the Berlin airlift, among other key broadcasts. It concludes with the famous speech Murrow gave at the 1958 RTNDA convention in which he chastised the networks for acquiescing to commercial interests to the detriment of educating and enlightening their audiences.