American journalist
Paul Welrose White
(June 6, 1902 ? July 9, 1955) was an American journalist and
news director
who founded the
Columbia Broadcasting System
's
news division
in 1933 and directed it for 13 years. His leadership spanned World War II and earned a 1945
Peabody Award
for
CBS Radio
. After his departure from CBS in 1946 he wrote a textbook on broadcast journalism,
News on the Air
(1947). Since 1956 the
Radio Television Digital News Association
has presented the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement as its highest honor.
Biography
[
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]
Paul Welrose White was born June 6, 1902, in
Pittsburg, Kansas
, the son of Paul Welrose White and Anna (Pickard) White. His early newspaper experience included reporting for
The Pittsburg Headlight
in 1918 and
The Salina Journal
in 1919, and working as a telegraph editor of
The Kansas City Journal
in 1920. White studied at the University of Kansas for two years (1920?21) before transferring to Columbia University. He received a Bachelor of Literature degree (1923) and a Master of Science degree (1924) from the
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
. While studying at Columbia he reported for
The New York Evening Bulletin
and was a contributor to the
New York Sunday World
.
[4]
White became a correspondent for the
United Press
, covering stories ranging from the sensational trials of
Ruth Snyder
,
Earl Carroll
and the
Hall?Mills murder case
to the historic flights of
Charles Lindbergh
,
Ruth Elder
and
Richard E. Byrd
. He worked his way up to editor of
United Features Syndicate
.
[5]
In 1929 the
Columbia Broadcasting System
began making regular radio news broadcasts ? five-minute summaries taken from reports from the United Press, one of the three wire services that supplied newspapers with national and international news. In December 1930 CBS chief
William S. Paley
hired White away from United Press as CBS's news editor. Paley put the radio network's news operation at the same level as entertainment, and authorized White to interrupt programming if events warranted. Along with other networks, CBS chafed at the
breaking news
embargo imposed upon radio by the wire services, which prevented them from using bulletins until they first appeared in print. CBS disregarded an embargo when it broke the story of the
Lindbergh kidnapping
in 1932, using live on-the-air reporting. Radio networks scooped print outlets with news of the
1932 presidential election
. The
American Newspaper Publishers Association
retaliated by closing the wire services to radio.
[6]
: 485?486
In March 1933 White was named vice president and general manager in charge of news at CBS.
[5]
"Paul White was building an organization that would take on an almost legendary reputation," wrote radio historian
John Dunning
. He organized the Columbia News Service, operating out of Studio Nine in New York, and produced three news broadcasts per day.
[6]
: 486
Creating the radio news service was the suggestion of
General Mills
, which agreed to pay half the cost. The
Dow Jones & Company
ticker service was purchased, along with a subscription to an international news agency in London, the
Exchange Telegraph
. Bureaus were set up in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, and those bureau managers hired
part-time correspondents
to cover every U.S. city with a population of 50,000 or more. Before long White was receiving inquiries from small newspapers about whether they could transcribe CBS radio reports and use them in print; and he found a few instances of newspapers doing just that, without attribution.
[7]
: 38?40
Within the year the conventional press wanted to compromise. In December 1933 the Press-Radio Bureau was created ? with another set of restrictions that were soon disregarded. "This was the last hurrah in the attempt by the press to control radio news," wrote radio historian John Dunning. "Radio had discovered its own capability."
[6]
: 486
In 1935 White hired
Edward R. Murrow
, and sent him to London in 1937 to run CBS Radio's European operation.
[6]
: 486
White led a staff that would come to include
Charles Collingwood
,
William L. Shirer
,
Eric Sevareid
,
[8]
Bill Downs
,
[3]
John Charles Daly
,
Joseph C. Harsch
[6]
: 501
Cecil Brown
,
Elmer Davis
,
Quincy Howe
,
H. V. Kaltenborn
and
Robert Trout
.
[4]
"CBS was getting its ducks in a row for the biggest news story in history, World War II", wrote radio historian John Dunning.
[6]
: 487
As early as 1940, White embarked upon a collaboration with
Edmund Chester
under the direct supervision of William S. Paley in the establishment of CBS' "La Cadena de las Americas" (Network of the Americas), in an effort to offset the proliferation of Nazi propaganda throughout South America during World War II.
[9]
In the process, he assumed a central role in the establishment of a new broadcast division within CBS consisting of sixty four stations which distributed vital news, music and cultural programming in support of
Pan-Americanism
for the government's
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
chaired by
Nelson Rockefeller
.
[10]
[11]
[12]
White and CBS received a 1945
Peabody Award
for Outstanding Reporting of the News. He left CBS in May 1946 to write a textbook,
News on the Air
(1947), and for health reasons he moved to San Diego, California, in 1947. He accepted the position of associate editor of
The San Diego Journal
and became news director of
KFMB radio
and
television
in 1950. He covered the
Republican
and
Democratic
National Conventions in Chicago for CBS in 1952.
[4]
White died at his home in San Diego July 9, 1955, after a long illness.
[4]
News on the Air
[
edit
]
Published in 1947, White's book
News on the Air
was still used as a textbook at the time of his death in 1955. Reviewing the book in
The New York Times
,
Jack Gould
wrote, "The name Paul W. White probably is not familiar to most radio listeners, but for thirteen years he had a direct and influential hand in regard to the news and opinion which they heard on the air. … Under Mr. White's administration, in fact, the CBS newsroom gained a reputation as the most competent and alert in radio." White's book argues that radio's chief value in journalism was its clear and informal presentation of news, in contrast to the cumbersome style employed by many newspapers.
[4]
"Paul White was a teacher as well as a working pro," said
Dan Rather
, recipient of the Paul White Award in 1997. "He taught Murrow and the
Murrow Boys
, and he taught at Columbia University from 1939 to 1946. And it's worth noting that Paul White didn't merely
practice
high standards ? he put them in a book, where he hoped that the young ? students and professionals ? would find them and learn from them. And so he wrote
News on the Air
. For a long time it was
the
definitive textbook on broadcast journalism. It influenced three generations of radio and television reporters, including the present generation ? and specifically including this reporter, who devoured the book in college."
[8]
Legacy
[
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]
Since 1956 the
Radio Television Digital News Association
has presented the Paul White Award for lifetime achievement as its highest honor. Recipients include
Christiane Amanpour
,
Tom Brokaw
,
Pauline Frederick
,
Charles Gibson
,
Charles Kuralt
,
Edward R. Murrow
,
Dan Rather
,
Tim Russert
,
Bob Schieffer
,
Chris Wallace
and
Lesley Stahl
.
[13]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
- ^
Variety Radio Directory 1940?1941
.
Variety
, Inc. 1940. p. 843.
- ^
"Susan Taylor White Papers, 1937?1979"
.
Wisconsin Historical Society
. Retrieved
2014-05-25
.
- ^
a
b
Conway, Mike,
The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s
. New York: Peter Lang, 2009
ISBN
9781433106026
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Paul White Dies; Radio Newsman"
.
The New York Times
. July 10, 1955
. Retrieved
2016-03-03
.
- ^
a
b
"News on the Air dustjacket"
.
NYPL Digital Gallery
. Retrieved
2014-05-25
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Dunning, John
(1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-507678-3
.
- ^
White, Paul W.,
News on the Air
. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Company
, 1947
- ^
a
b
Dan Rather Accepting the Paul White Award
,
Radio Television Digital News Association
Conference & Exhibition, September 20, 1997. Retrieved 2014-05-25.
- ^
In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, USA, 2002, Chapter 18
ISBN
978-0-307-78671--5
Paul White, Edmund Chester, William S. Paley and La Cadena de las Americas on Books.google.com See Chapter 18
- ^
Time
- Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942
William S. Paley, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com
- ^
In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, USA, 2002, Chapter 18
ISBN
978-0-307-78671--5
Paul White, Edmund Chester, William S. Paley and La Cadena de las Americas on Books.google.com See Chapter 18
- ^
Roosevelt, Franklin D.,
"Executive Order 8840 Establishing the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs"
, July 30, 1941. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project,
University of California, Santa Barbara
- ^
"Paul White Award"
.
Radio Television Digital News Association
. Retrieved
2016-01-21
.
External links
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