Excellent piece on Murrow

1. Lemann says Murrow made the point in his speech to the RTNDA on October 15 1958. I've skimmed the speech: he refers to

   the fact that the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission publicly prods broadcasters to engage in their legal right to editorialize.

   but the prodding was clearly ineffective:

   It is much easier, much less troublesome, to use the money-making machine of television and radio merely as a conduit through which to channel anything that is not libelous, obscene or defamatory.

   In a largely despairing effort (this was pretty much the height of the quiz craze), he says, on the predominance of dross on screen,

   The only remedy for this is closer inspection and punitive action by the F.C.C. But in the view of many this would come perilously close to supervision of program content by a federal agency.

   Rather a sad valedictory.