Ed Bliss
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Edward "Ed" Bliss, Jr. (July 30,1912--Nov. 25, 2002) was an American broadcast journalist and author of several books. He died in Alexandria, Virginia.
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[edit] Bliss Before CBS
Bliss' father was a missionary doctor who spent much of his life in China. In fact, Bliss was born in China, in Fuzhou. He lived in China until he was nine.
In 1935 Bliss graduated from Yale University and landed his first job at a small Ohio newspaper, The Bucyrus. The pay, $6 per week but he was able to earn an extra $1.50 per week as a stringer for the Toledo Blade. The experience paid off and 1936 found him working at a Scripps Howard newspaper, Columbus Citizen, in Columbus, Ohio.
His first beat at the Citizen included the state prison. After he witnessed his first execution he submitted an unsolicited editorial opposing the death penalty. He set the editorial on his editor's desk and the next day it was published as the paper's lead editorial. He worked at the Citizen until 1942. While there he worked as a reporter, state editor, book and film reviewer and columnist.
Away from journalism Bliss was married in 1940, to Lois.
[edit] Bliss at CBS
Ed Bliss was hired by CBS in 1943. He got his start by chance. A friend Bliss was visiting in New York mentioned that Dallas Townsend --a writer who later became a CBS broadcaster-- had enlisted in the Army, leaving a job opening at CBS. He applied and was handed thousands of words of copy from United Press, Hearst International News Service and Associated Press and told to write a five-minute newscast. It was a sort of test. He did it and he passed. CBS News chief Paul White gave him a midnight to 9 a.m. job writing news copy at CBS.
He was part of a second generation of Murrow's Boys which included Alexander Kendrick, George Polk, David Schoenbrun and others. Bliss produced and wrote for Murrow. He was also the first news editor for the CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite.
He left CBS in 1968 to found the broadcast journalism program at American University in Washington D.C.
[edit] Books
Bliss wrote several books, mostly on the media. They include Writing News for Broadcast, and Now the News. He also edited a book called In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow. In addition he wrote Beyond the Stone Arches, a book about his father.
[edit] Honors
1984: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Educator
1993: Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation Paul White Award
[edit] Sources
- RTNDA Obit
- Bliss interview
- Paul White Award Introduction by Walter Cronkite
- Tribute from longtime friend Mervin Block
