Edward Lydston Bliss, Jr. (July 30, 1912 – November 25, 2002) was an American broadcast journalist, news editor and educator. After 25 years at CBS News (1943–1968) as editor, copywriter and producer for
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...
and
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
Ed Bliss was born July 30, 1912, in Fuzhou, China. His parents were missionaries; his father, Edward Lydston Bliss, was a physician, and his mother, May Bortz Bliss, was a teacher. Bliss lived in China until he was nine.
Bliss grew up in Massachusetts, attending the
Northfield Mount Hermon School
Northfield Mount Hermon School, often called NMH, is a co-educational preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association.
Present day
NMH offers nearly 200 courses, including AP a ...
and editing the school paper. He planned to become a doctor like his father, but after receiving his bachelor of arts degree from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in 1935 he set out on a career in journalism. He was hired as a reporter at the ''Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum'' in Bucyrus, Ohio, and developed his skills working for Rowland R. Peters, a former reporter for the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
Scripps-Howard
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
paper in Columbus, Ohio, where he worked as a reporter and state editor until 1943.Murray, Michael D., ''Encyclopedia of Television News''. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999.
Bliss and Lois Arnette were married August 26, 1940, and they had two daughters.''
Contemporary Authors Online
''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work which has been published by Gale since 1962. It provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers. ''Contemporary Authors'' does not have selective inclusion cr ...
'',
Gale
A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface winds moving at a speed of between 34 and 47 knots (, or ).CBS Radio 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
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...
,
International News Service
The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.
and
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
and told to write a five-minute
newscast
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...
. 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.
Bliss was considered one of the best of all news scriptwriters."Ed Bliss". ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'', December 11, 2002. During his 25 years at
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 ...
radio and television, Bliss wrote and edited the news summary for
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...
's broadcasts, worked on the investigative TV series ''
CBS Reports
''CBS Reports'' is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with '' 60 Minutes'' (or other similar CBS News series), as a series of ...
'' with Fred W. Friendly, and was executive assistant to CBS News president
Richard S. Salant
Richard Samuel Salant (April 14, 1914 – February 16, 1993) was a CBS executive from 1952 and president of the CBS News division from 1961 to 1964 and 1966–79. He was noted for the introduction of '' 60 Minutes'' and the ''CBS Morning News' ...
. In 1963, Bliss became
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
's news editor when the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'' became TV's first half-hour news broadcast. Bliss was news editor on the broadcast that announced the death of President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
; he had been monitoring the wire reports and gave Cronkite the news when he returned from lunch.
After Murrow died his widow,
Janet Huntington Brewster
Janet Huntington Brewster (September 18, 1910 – December 18, 1998) was an American philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster and relief worker during World War II in London. She was the wife of broadcaster Edward R. Murrow.
Life
Born ...
, asked Bliss to edit a collection of his work. The book, ''In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, 1938–1961'', was published in 1967.
Bliss left CBS in 1968 to found the
broadcast journalism
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, ...
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, Jackie Judd of
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
and Deborah Potter of CBS and
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
. His bestselling textbook, ''Writing News for Broadcast'', was first published in 1971; Bliss also wrote the first comprehensive history of broadcast journalism, ''Now the News'' (1991).
He retired from teaching in 1977, and worked until 1997 as a consultant to broadcasting companies including the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
and CBS News.
Bliss wrote ''Beyond the Stone Arches'' (2001), a book about his father's 40 years in China, and ''For Love of Lois'' (2003), a book about his late wife's struggle with Alzheimer's disease that was published posthumously.
Bliss died November 25, 2002, in
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C.
In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...
, of respiratory failure.
Books
* 1967: ''In Search of Light; The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, 1938–1961'' (editor). New York: Knopf, 1967.
* 1969: ''Stylebook for Broadcast News''. Washington, DC: American University, Dept. of Communication, 1969.
* 1971: ''Writing News for Broadcast'' (with John Meredith Patterson). New York: Columbia University Press, 1971. Second edition, fully revised (with John M. Patterson and Fred W. Friendly). New York: Columbia University Press, 1978. Third edition (with James L. Hoyt). New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
* 1991: ''Now the News: The Story of Broadcast Journalism''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
* 2001: ''Beyond the Stone Arches: An American Medical Missionary in China, 1892–1932''. New York: Wiley, 2001.
* 2003: ''For Love of Lois''. New York: Fordham University Press, 2003.
Honors
* 1984:
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a major international membership organization for academics in the field, offering regional and national conferences and refereed publications. It has numerous membershi ...
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a major international membership organization for academics in the field, offering regional and national conferences and refereed publications. It has numerous membershi ...
presents the annual Edward L. Bliss Award for Distinguished Broadcast Journalism Education. The Bliss Award recognizes an educator who has made significant and lasting contributions to the field of electronic journalism.