Pioneering broadcast journalist Eric Sevareid.

(Arnold) Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents—dubbed "Murrow's Boys"—because they were hired by pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Broadcast journalism refers to television news and radio news, as well as the online news outlets of broadcast affiliates. ... is the 330th day of the year (331st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... Murrow’s Boys, or “The Murrow Boys,” were the CBS broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his years at the network, specifically the years before and during World War II. Murrow recruited a number of newsmen and women to CBS during his years as a correspondent... April 8, 1956: CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow talking to reporters during a stop in Wiesbaden, Germany. ...

Sevareid was a child of the American Plains. He was born in Velva, North Dakota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1935. Of Norwegian ancestry, he preserved a strong bond with Norway throughout his life. Velva is a city located in McHenry County, North Dakota. ... Washington Avenue Bridge at night The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, almost always abbreviated U of M, and sometimes referred to as The U by locals, is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system. ...

Early life

Eric Sevareid had an adventuresome spirit from a young age. When he was just 17 years old, beginning several days after he graduated from high school he and his friend Walter Port took a embarked on an expedition sponsored by the Minneapolis Star, from Minneapolis, Minnesota to York Factory on Hudson Bay. They canoed up the Minnesota River and its tributary, the Little Minnesota River to Browns Valley, Minnesota, portaged to Lake Traverse and descended the Bois des Sioux River to the Red River of the North which led to Lake Winnipeg, then went down the Nelson River, Gods River, and Hayes River to Hudson Bay, a trip of 2,250 miles.[1] Sevareid's book, Canoeing with the Cree, was the result of this canoe trip. The book is still in print. The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-St. ... Nickname: Motto: En Avant (French: Forward) Location in Hennepin County and the state of Minnesota Coordinates: , Country United States State Minnesota Counties Hennepin Government  - Mayor R.T. Rybak (DFL) Area  - City 58. ... Ruperts Land, showing the location of York Factory York Factory was a historic settlement and longtime headquarters of the Hudsons Bay Company in North America, located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in present-day northeastern Manitoba, Canada. ... Hudson Bay, Canada. ... The Mendota Bridge crossing the Minnesota River, just above its mouth View of the Minnesota River from Memorial Park; southeast of Granite Falls, MN. The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the state of Minnesota in the United States. ... The Little Minnesota River is a tributary of the Minnesota River in northeastern South Dakota and west-central Minnesota in the United States. ... Browns Valley is a city located in Traverse County, Minnesota. ... For the Gentoo Linux package manager, see Portage (software). ... Lake Traverse is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America. ... The Bois de Sioux River below the dam of Lake Traverse. ... See also the Red River disambiguation page. ... Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba, on Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (52°30′N 97°47′W) is a very large (24,400 km²) lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, about 55 km north of the city of Winnipeg. ... The Nelson River is a river of north-central North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. ... The Hayes River is a river in Manitoba, Canada. ... Hudson Bay, Canada. ...

Early career

Prior to joining CBS, Sevareid worked for the Minneapolis Journal and the Paris Herald Tribune (later name International Herald Tribune). During World War II, he broadcast the fall of Paris to the Germans, moving to London thereafter. In 1943, Sevareid was on board a plane that crashed in the jungles of southeast Asia. He helped to lead passengers and crew to safety. The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-St. ... The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... This article is about the capital of France. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

He would write about the Plains influence on him in his early memoir "Not So Wild A Dream"(1946), which covers life in Velva, his family, the Hudson Bay trip, hitchhiking around the USA, mining in the Sierra Nevada, the Great Depression years, his early journalism and especially his experiences in World War II. This book remains in print. This article is about the mountain range in the Western United States. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Just one of the boys

Sevareid's work during World War II, with Edward R. Murrow as one of the original Murrow's Boys, was at the forefront of broadcasting. He was the first to report on the fall of France and the French surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940. Shortly after, he joined Murrow to report on the Battle of Britain. Later Sevareid would refer to the early years, working with Murrow, in fond terms. "We were like a young band of brothers in those early radio days with Murrow", he said. Later, in his final broadcast with CBS, in 1977 he would call Murrow the man who "invented me."^[1] April 8, 1956: CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow talking to reporters during a stop in Wiesbaden, Germany. ... Murrow’s Boys, or “The Murrow Boys,” were the CBS broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his years at the network, specifically the years before and during World War II. Murrow recruited a number of newsmen and women to CBS during his years as a correspondent... Combatants United Kingdom Including combatants from:[1] Poland New Zealand Canada Czechoslovakia Belgium Australia South Africa France Ireland United States Jamaica Palestine Rhodesia Germany Including combatants from Italy Commanders Hugh Dowding Hermann Göring Strength 754 single-seat fighters 149 two-seat fighters 560 bombers 500 coastal 1,963 total...

Covering the Burmese-China theater during the war a plane Sevareid was on developed engine trouble and he was briefly lost after parachuting to safety.^[1] Later he reported on Tito's partisans from Yugoslavia.

After the war, Sevareid's work with CBS continued. In 1946 he reported on the founding of the UN and then penned Not So Wild a Dream. The book appeared in eleven printings and became one of the primary sources on the lives of the generation of Americans who had lived through the Great Depression only to confront the horrors of World War II. In the 1976 edition of the book Sevareid wrote, "It was a lucky stroke of timing to have been born and lived as an American in this last generation. It was good fortune to be a journalist in Washington, now the single news headquarters in the world since ancient Rome. But we are not Rome; the world is too big, too varied."^[1] This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ...

Post-war career and the 1950s

Sevareid always considered himself a writer first and often felt uneasy behind a microphone, even less comfortable on television. Nonetheless, he worked extensively for CBS News on television in the years following the war and the decades after. During the mid to late 1950s Sevareid found himself on television as the host and science reporter of CBS' Conquest. He also served as the head of the CBS Washington bureau from 1946-1954 and became one of the early critics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communism tactics. It was during the early 1950s that Sevareid caught the attention of the FBI in their ongoing attempts to identify and root out American Communists. CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. Its current president is Sean McManus who is also head of CBS Sports. ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. ...

Sevareid and the Feds

Internal FBI documents, declassified in 1996, show that the bureau took an active interest in Eric Sevareid's reporting as well as his activities during the early 1950s. A March 1953 document, titled "Security Information", is one of several FBI documents that chronicle Sevareid's activities during the 1940s. In particular the document mentions that in 1941 Sevareid was alleged to have been a Communist while at the University of Minnesota and goes on to note his involvement in an awards banquet held by the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee(JAFRC) in 1945. JAFRC is noted as being a Communist organization pursuant to Executive Order 9835. Much of the knowledge the FBI had of Sevareid's purported Communist activity came through "a representative of another governmental agency" and remained unconfirmed by investigation.^[2] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Page one of Executive Order 9835, signed by Harry S. Truman in 1947. ...

The information contained in the bureau's files was being circulated during March 1953 as Sevareid anchored a new program on CBS called A Report to the Nation. Specifically, the bureau's interest revolved around the March 8, 1953 broadcast of the program in which Sevareid interviewed Harold Stassen, then Director for Mutual Security. Internal documents reveal, time and again, that the FBI did have information on Sevareid's alleged "disloyal" activities, as well as active suspicion that he was a "disloyal" American.^[2] is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Governor Stassen Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a later perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States. ...

Among Sevareid's activities which the FBI referenced multiple times were:

• A May 17, 1945 report in the Daily People's World which stated Sevareid was a scheduled speaker at the above mentioned JAFRC banquet. The FBI called the Daily People's World the West Coast communist newspaper and said that Sevareid was identified as a radio commentator in its reports

• A May 19, 1945 "newspapermen's forum" titled "The Free Press" held at the California Labor School in which Sevareid was a participant. In two separate 1948 reports Attorney General Tom Clark called the California Labor School "a subversive and Communist organization."

• That the name Eric Sevareid was included on a list of people to contact in connection to raise funds for Hollywood celebrities appearing before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947.

• Unsubstantiated reports that while at the University of Minnesota Sevareid associated mostly with Communists.

• That while working for the school newspaper at the University of Minnesota Sevareid was a participant in an active campaign against the ROTC.

By April 1953 internal FBI documents show that the bureau saw no real reason to begin investigation into Sevareid's activities.^[2] is the 137th day of the year (138th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945and died 2007 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 139th day of the year (140th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945and died 2007 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Tom Clark is a Canadian television journalist. ... The House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC (1945-1975) was an investigating committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program of the United States armed forces present on college campuses to recruit and educate commissioned officers. ...

The 50s after the FBI

Sevareid wound up the 1950s as CBS' roving European Correspondent from 1959-61. He contributed stories to CBS Reports during this time and served as moderator on a number of CBS series. Those include, Town Meeting of the World, The Great Challenge, Where We Stand and Years of Crisis. Sevareid also appeared in or on CBS coverage of every presidential election from 1948 until 1976, the year before his retirement.^[1]

Career from 1961-1977

One of Sevareid's biggest scoops from this time period was his 1965 exclusive interview with Adlai Stevenson, shortly before Stevenson's death. Oddly enough, the interview was not broadcast over CBS but instead appeared in Look magazine. However it was Sevareid's familiar "think-pieces" which familiarized him with viewers worldwide.^[1] Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician, noted for intellectual demeanor and advocacy of liberal causes in the Democratic party. ... Look was a weekly, general-interest magazine published in the United States from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles. ...

From 1964 until he retired from CBS in 1977 Sevareid's two-minute segments on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite inspired those who endeared him to dub him "The Grey Eminence." During his run of commentary his segments garnered the attention of both the Emmy Awards and the Peabody Awards. Of course not everybody loved Sevareid's analysis and those who were irked by his commentary nicknamed him "Eric Severalsides." Indeed, Sevareid recognized his own biases that were responsible for some disagreeing so vehemently with his stances. He said himself that as he had grown older his tendency was toward conservatism in foreign policy and liberalism in domestic policy.^[1] An Emmy Award. ... The George Foster Peabody Awards, more commonly known as simply the Peabody Awards, are annual awards given for excellence in radio and television broadcasting and cable television within the United States. ...

His commentary touched on many of the days important issues. Following a 1966 trip to South Vietnam he commented that prolonging the war would be unwise and that the United States would be better off pursuing a negotiated settlement. He also helped keep alive another Murrow tradition at CBS that began with the interview show Person to Person. On Conversations with Eric Sevareid he interviewed such famous newsmakers as West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, novelist Leo Rosten and others. In somewhat of a spoof of this tradition he also had a conversation with King George III, portrayed by Peter Ustinov, titled The Last King in America.^[1] Official language Vietnamese Capital Saigon Last President Duong Van Minh Last Prime Minister Vu Van Mau Area  - Total  - % water 173,809 km² N/A Population  - Total  - Density 19,370,000 (1973 est. ... A person-to-person call is an operator assisted telephone call in which the calling party wants to speak to a specific party and not to anyone who answers. ... Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (December 18, 1913 - October 8, 1992), was a German politician, Chancellor of West Germany 1969 – 1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1964 – 1987. ... Leo Calvin Rosten (April 11, 1908–February 19, 1997) was born on 11 April 1908 in Lodz, Russian Empire (now Poland) and died on 19 February 1997 in New York. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738–29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain, and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ... Ustinov at Large (book cover) Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE (16 April 1921 – 28 March 2004), born Peter Alexander Baron von Ustinov, was an Academy Award-winning British-born actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur of French, Italian, German, Russian and Ethiopian ancestry. ...

On his last appearance on the CBS Evening News his emotional state was obvious; he was shedding tears.

Death

Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer on July 9, 1992, aged 79. Dan Rather gave a eulogy at his funeral. is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

Sevareid in popular culture

Eric portrayed himself in the movie, The Right Stuff. The Right Stuff is a 1979 book (ISBN 0374250332) by Tom Wolfe, and a 1983 film adapted from the book. ...

Sevareid appears in Philip Roth's novel Our Gang as "Erect Severehead." Philip Roth Goodbye Columbus (1959), 2006 Vintage paperback edition Philip Milton Roth (born March 19, 1933, Newark, New Jersey) is an American novelist. ...

He also appeared in an episode of Taxi as himself, in Tony Danza's character's fantasy. Look up taxi in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Tony Danza. ...

Honors

• Recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.
• 1965: New York Newspaper Guild Page One Award
• 1950: Peabody Award
• 1964: Peabody Award
• 1976: Peabody Award
• Two-time Emmy Award winner
• 1981: Harry S. Truman Award
• Two-time Overseas Press Club Award winner

Official language(s) English Capital Bismarck Largest city Fargo Area  Ranked 19th  - Total 70,762 sq mi (183,272 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 340 miles (545 km)  - % water 2. ... The Roughrider Award is an award presented by the governor of the state of North Dakota. ...

References and further reading

1. Canoeing with the Cree, 1935, reprinted 1968 ISBN 0-87351-152-2
2. Not So Wild a Dream (autobiography), 1946, reissued 1976 ISBN 0-8262-1014-7
3. In One Ear: 107 Snapshots of Men and Events which Make a Far-Reaching Panorama of the American Situation at Mid-Century (essays), Knopf, 1952.
4. Small Sounds in the Night: A Collection of Capsule Commentaries on the American Scene, Knopf, 1956.
5. This is Eric Sevareid (essays), McGraw, 1964.
6. (With Robert A. Smith) Washington: Magnificent Capital, Doubleday, 1965.
7. (With John Case) Enterprise: The Making of Business in America, McGraw-Hill, 1983.

External links

• Yesterday's News Excerpt from "Canoeing with the Cree" series, Minneapolis Star, Sept. 6, 1930

Notes

Children

Eric Sevareid had two sons from his first marriage, and a daughter from his second marriage. One of his sons named a son in his father's honor.