On October 15, 1958 -- sixty years ago next week -- Edward R. Murrow, the distinguished CBS newsman, delivered his famous "wires and lights" speech in Chicago at the Radio and Television News Directors Association convention. In it, he criticized American media for abandoning its responsibility to enlighten the audience on the crucial issues of the day and instead falling prey to facile entertainment that was shamelessly driven by profit.
"This instrument [radio and TV] can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box," Murrow stated. He added: "There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance, and indifference."
In a new seven-episode In Contrast special "What's Wrong with American Media?," public intellectual and host of In Contrast Ilan Stavans and veteran journalist Ray Suarez look at Murrow's message in the age of "fake news." The special will roll out weekdays beginning Monday, October 15, and will also be featured on The NEPR News Network in two condensed episodes, Sunday, October 21 and 28 at 2:00 p.m.
In a conversational style, Stavans and Suarez explore the history of American media, looking at issues of race, gender, and class. They compare public and private outlets, reflect on the role of sports, analyze the pros and cons of commercialization, and debate the possibility of a future where Americans no longer have a chance "to have an honest and broad conversation with themselves."
"At a time when the news is said to no longer deliver its message 'objectively,' but in polarized form by outfits defined by partisan loyalty, and as concepts like 'fake news' take hold in the collective consciousness, the role of a responsible media in the United States is today more embittered than ever," says Stavans. "This special is an attempt to assess if the wires and lights in a box still have the capacity to awaken civic responsibility."
Ilan Stavans is the host of In Contrast, a podcast produced by New England Public Radio and Quixote Productions. An award-winning cultural critic, linguist, translator and editor, Ilan is also the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.
Ray Suarez is a broadcast journalist. He was a senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour, hosted NPR's Talk of the Nation for almost seven years, and most recently hosted a show on Al Jazeera America called Inside Story. He is a published author, and frequent fill-in host for NPR programs including On Point, and All Things Considered.
In a far-ranging discussion on the state of American media today, Ray Suarez and Ilan Stavans echo criticisms that Murrow cited sixty years and discuss new challenges that he couldn't have envisioned," says NEPR's Executive Director of Programming, John Voci. "Ilan brings the perspective of someone who has explored language, immigration and the media while Ray has the experience of decades of working as a journalist."
NEPR's In Contrast podcast explores wide-ranging topics from art to politics through interviews with the people experiencing and defining the issues of the modern world. Past guests include such diverse figures as American poet Wendy Barker, children's book author Norton Juster, Washington Post journalist Wesley Lowery, New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens, and The New Yorker foreign-correspondent Robin Wright. New episodes are released the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Subscribe to In Contrast on Apple Podcasts or at nepr.net/incontrast.