Edward R. Murrow(1908-1965)

Murrow's public attacks on Senator Joseph McCarthy were prompted by the suicide of Murrow's friend, former State Department official Laurence Duggan, whom had been accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. Responding to Murrow, McCarthy challenged him to debate William F. Buckley about Communists within the U.S. Government; Murrow refused. Decrypted cables and archived documents later confirmed that Duggan was, in fact, a Soviet agent.

"Dear Sir or Madam: You may be right." This was Murrow's standard postcard reply to any and all critics who wrote to him.