The men who changed radio, television --- and the world

Bill Paley. Frank Stanton and Ed Murrow revolutionized American radio, television --- and the world.

Murrow's broadcasts during the Nazi blitz of London in the early 1940s move much of American public opinion away from isolationism and toward internationalism.

His subsequent dramatic revelations about the demagogic Sen. Joe McCarthy were powerful and potent.

McCarthy was indeed a drunk and demagougue --- and many of his charges were untrue.

But the release of the Venona Papers after the end of The Cold War showed that there was far more domestic spying than people understood.

There were not commies-under- every-bed nor even commies-under-most-every-bed --- but there were more than we expected --- and they harmed us by revealing atomic secrets.