Herbert Morrison

Herbert Morrison (May 12, 1905 – January 10, 1989) was an American journalist whose charged radio report on the Hindenburg disaster is recognized as a landmark in broadcasting. Decades on from his 1937 report, he became the first news director at Pennsylvania's television station WTAE-TV. The writer Craig M. Allen describes him as "an early pioneer of both radio and television news".

Native to Pennsylvania, Morrison joined the WLS radio station in 1936. When the airship Hindenburg was set to conclude its maiden US trip of 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey, he was sent there to report on its planned landing. He brought with him new, unusual recording equipment. As the airship neared the landing ground, it burst into flames, and Morrison's report turned emotional. He hyperventilated and wept, crying, "Oh, the humanity" out of grief for the lives lost, a phrase that has since been assimilated into popular culture.

Morrison's report aired on WLS the following day, and parts of it featured on NBC. NBC had never broadcast a recording before but made an exception for Morrison's firsthand account. Millions around the world eventually heard it. The broadcast is credited, in part, with drawing much attention to the Hindenburg disaster compared with other calamities of that time. An early example of emergency, as-it-happened reporting, it altered how the relationship between the radio and news is understood. Its dramatic tone influenced the production of Orson Welles' radio drama "The War of the Worlds".

Morrison's work as a journalist continued for several decades, first in New York City and then in Pittsburgh. He was also a trained pilot, serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and a politician based in Pennsylvania.

Early life Herbert Morrison, known as "Herb", was born on May 12, 1905,Refn|A New York Times article published on Sunday, May 5, 1985, noted that Morrison would turn 80 "next Sunday": May 12, 1985. He graduated from Scottdale High in 1923. At 7:21 pm EDT, it started preparing to land. Four minutes later, the Hindenburg caught fire, and it sank to the landing ground engulfed in flames. It disintegrated within a minute. 35 of the 97 people aboard and one person on the ground died. As he witnessed the disaster unfold, Morrison's tone immediately changed:

Morrison lost his composure; he hyperventilated, broke into tears, and briefly lost his voice as his professional commentary gave way to an emotional outpour. However, he quickly recovered and went on to report on the disaster for 37 minutes over the next two hours:

When, during these two hours, he was not recording, he interviewed witnesses and survivors of the Hindenburgs collapse, identifying some of them by name, and partook in rescue efforts.

Dan Grossman of Airships.net remarks that "while early news reports of air crashes are infamous for their inaccuracy even today, Morrison accurately described the facts that were known". although it is still not fully understood. Just before NBC Blue aired parts of the report, an announcer stated: "[We] present now one of the most unique broadcasts we have ever presented." Still, their practice was upheld until World War II. to discuss the disaster as he saw it unfold.

Aftermath and legacy

Morrison's report was eventually distributed worldwide and heard by millions. His dramatic, emotional reaction to the Hindenburgs collapse —his sorrow manifest In McCarthy's words: "The public had never heard such a raw, shocking account of an eyewitness plunged in a blink of an eye into an unfolding catastrophe. It was spellbinding." Chicagoan radio editors applauded his commentary, with a writer for the Herald-Examiner calling it "one of the best pieces of worlds-eye view [I've] ever heard". The WLS president recognized Morrison and Charles Nehlsen's efforts. Moreover, "oh, the humanity", a phrase Morrison uttered out of sorrow for the disaster's victims, so much so that it has become a generic expression of horror. He sought to style the drama as a contemporary radio broadcast. listened to Morrison's report repeatedly, heeding his voice and outpouring of emotions to craft an effective hysterical reaction.

Scholarly analysis

The scholar Luther F. Sies highlights Morrison's broadcast as a notable event in the history of special, as-it-happened broadcasting. In fact, as notes the historian Carl Jablonski, the Hindenburg disaster was one of the first to be documented just as it happened, with cameras and recording apparatus present onsite to capture it in real time. This was not the case with many previous disasters, such as the deadlier crash of the USS Akron.

Some historians have considered the report's significance to the medium of broadcasting. In Tim Crook's view, it "demonstrated radio's power to convey the emotional impact of the events that make news". Morrison, asked in 1966 on how his feelings about news reporting changed after the Hindenburg disaster, thought that it "helped open a new way to cover news events", by recording a report of the event and then playing it back.

Morrison's voice is also a subject of note to commentators. Experts such as Grossman argue that the recording disks ran too slow, causing the broadcast to run abnormally quickly when played back —according to the audio historian Michael Biel, by a minimum factor of three percent. Thus, his voice is made to sound high-pitched, when it was actually deep and mellow.

Later life

Morrison's career continued for several decades. He left WLS in 1939 to join Mutual, which the writer Craig M. Allen suggests "helped bring TV news to western Pennsylvania". He later worked freelance. After developing a radio and television section at West Virginia University in the 1960s,

An aviation enthusiast, Morrison ran for Congress thrice from Pennsylvania as a Republican: A Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph piece reports that during the last election cycle, he campaigned for tax cuts, save for those that would compromise national defense, as well as for "special incentives to retain the services of skilled federal employees". At this time, Morrison was a borough councilman for Scottdale.