About Eric Sevareid
During World War II, Sevareid "scooped the world" with his broadcast of the news of the French surrender in l940, joined Murrow in covering "The Battle of Britain," was lost briefly after parachuting into the Burmese Jungle when his plane developed engine trouble while covering the Burmese-China theater; he reported on Tito's partisans; and he landed with the first wave of American troops in Southern France, accompanying them all the way to Germany. For the rest of his career Sevareid resisted the slow surrender of broadcast journalism to popular showmanship and always championed the values of broadcast news as Murrow had defined them - freedom, fairness, and solid reporting.
In l946 after reporting on the founding of the United Nations, Sevareid wrote Not So Wild a Dream, which appeared in 11 printings and became a primary source on the lives of the generation of Americans who had lived through the Depression and World War II.
Serving as CBS's roving European Correspondent from l959-61, Sevareid contributed stories to CBS Reports as well as serving as moderator of series such as Town Meeting of the World, The Great Challenge, Where We Stand, and Years of Crisis. In addition, he also participated in the coverage of every presidential election from l948 to l976.
From l963 until his retirement Sevareid appeared on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. There his somber, eloquent commentaries were praised as lucid and illuminating as well as criticized for sounding profound without reaching a conclusive point. Those two-minute commentaries earned Sevareid three George Foster Peabody Awards (1950, 1964, and 1976), three Emmy Awards, two Overseas Press Club Awards, the Harry S. Truman Award, and others.
Eric Sevareid died July 9, 1992, of stomach cancer at age 79.
