LEGENDARY RADIO-TV NEWSMAN DANIEL SCHORR DEAD AT 93

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Daniel Schorr, the last surviving member of “Murrow’s Boys,” the legendary team of watchdog journalists who were brought together at CBS by Edward R. Murrow after World War II, died Friday of a brief, undisclosed illness at the age of 93. Active to the very end, his final commentary was broadcast on July 10th on Weekend Edition, the weekend news magazine that airs on NPR, where Schorr had acted as senior news analyst for the past 25 years. He achieved his greatest fame at CBS, where he managed to raise the hackles of government leaders, network executives, and colleagues alike. As bureau chief for CBS in Moscow, he was the first American broadcast journalist ever to interview a Soviet leader — Nikita Khrushchev, in 1957. (Until then, broadcasters invariable pronounced Khrushchev’s name “KROO-shev.” But at the beginning of the interview Schorr asked him how to pronounced his name correctly, and he replied, “Kroos-CHOFF.” Overnight, CBS newscasters changed their pronunciation, and the Associated Press followed suit with a correction on its broadcast wire. Today, newscasters invariably pronounce it incorrectly.) In the early ’70s, he covered the Watergate scandal like no other broadcast journalist. Getting hold of Richard Nixon’s “enemies list,” he rushed onto the air with it before reading all of the names. When he got to No. 17, he read “Daniel Schorr.” In his book, Clearing the Air, he wrote that his first thought was that he had to go on reading without pause and not appear surprised. “I do not know how well I carried off my effort to appear oblivious to the discovery of my name on an ominous-looking list, but I count this one of the most trying experiences in my television career.”

Clearing The Air (Berkley medallion book ; TM 757,375)