David Franz Schoenbrun (March 15, 1915 – May 23, 1988) was an American
broadcast journalist
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...
.
Biography
Schoenbrun was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in 1915. He began his career teaching French.
Schoenbrun enlisted in the Army in 1943 and became a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
correspondent covering North Africa through to the liberation of France, for which he was decorated with the
Croix de Guerre and the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
. Schoenbrun was recruited to
Camp Ritchie
Fort Ritchie at Cascade, Maryland was a military installation southwest of Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania and southeast of Waynesboro in the area of South Mountain. Following the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, it closed in 19 ...
for his knowledge of French and is considered to be one of the
Ritchie Boys
The Ritchie Boys were a special collection of soldiers, with sizable numbers of German-Austrian recruits, of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland. ...
.
After the war, from 1947 to 1964, Schoenbrun worked for
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, serving primarily as the network's bureau chief in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where he met and interviewed the President
Charles de Gaulle a number of times. He was one of the reporters known as
Murrow's Boys
The Murrow Boys, or Murrow's Boys, were the CBS radio broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his time at the network, most notably in the years before and during World War II.
Murrow recruited a number of newsm ...
.
In 1959, at the age of 44, Schoenbrun received the
Alfred I. duPont Award.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, Schoenbrun served as a news analyst for WNEW Radio in New York (now
WBBR
WBBR (1130 AM) is a Class A clear-channel radio station licensed to New York, New York. It serves as the flagship station of Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg L.P.'s radio service. The station offers general and financial news reports 24-hours a ...
) and other
Metromedia
Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...
broadcast properties, and later for crosstown
WPIX
WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of Th ...
Television and its
Independent Network News operation. In the mid-1970s, he served as a foreign affairs analyst for a short-lived public television channel in Los Angeles.
Schoenbrun is the author of ''On and Off the Air'', a personal account of the history of CBS News through the 1970s. Schoenbrun also wrote several books concerning World-War-II-era France and other works drawn from his experiences as a newsman.
Schoenbrun died of a heart attack in New York City, at the age of 73.
Bibliography
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See also
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Appeal of June 18
The Appeal of 18 June (french: L'Appel du 18 juin) was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France. Broadcast to Vichy France by the radio services of the British Broadcasting Cor ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoenbrun, David
1915 births
1988 deaths
American radio journalists
American television journalists
American reporters and correspondents
American broadcast news analysts
American male journalists
United States Army personnel of World War II