Broadcast journalist, born in Velva, North Dakota, USA. He worked at the Minneapolis Journal and was city editor for the Paris Herald Tribune before joining CBS Radio (1939). He served as national correspondent and commentator for the CBS Evening News until 1977. Often characterized as the brightest of Murrow's boys at CBS, he had a weakness for vaguely deep speculations about the human condition, about which he grew increasingly disillusioned as he aged. He published his memoirs, Not So Wild A Dream, in 1976.
(Arnold) Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977.
Sevareid was a child of the American Plains.
Early career
Prior to joining CBS, Sevareid worked for the Minneapolis Journal and the Paris Herald Tribune (later name International Herald Tribune). In 1943, Sevareid was on board a plane that crashed in the jungles of southeast Asia.
Sevareid's first publication, the book Canoeing with the Cree, was the result of a canoe trip, underwritten by the Minneapolis Star, that he made with his friend Walter Port upon their graduation, in 1930, from high school in Minneapolis. After paddling up the Minnesota River and its tributary, the Little Minnesota River, to its source near Browns Valley, Minnesota, they portaged to the Red River of the North, taking that to Lake Winnipeg, then down God's River, Nelson River, and Hayes River to Hudson Bay, a trip of 2,250 miles.
Just one of the boys
Sevareid's work during WWII, with Edward R. Later Sevareid would refer to the early years, working with Murrow, in fond terms.
Covering the Burmese-China theater during the war a plane Sevareid was on developed engine trouble and he was briefly lost after parachuting to safety.
After the war, Sevareid's work with CBS continued. In the 1976 edition of the book Sevareid wrote, "It was a lucky stroke of timing to have been born and lived as an American in this last generation.
Post-war career and the 1950s
Sevareid always considered himself a writer first and often felt uneasy behind a microphone, even less comfortable on television. During the mid to late 1950s Sevareid found himself on television as the host and science reporter of CBS' Conquest. It was during the early 1950s that Sevareid caught the attention of the FBI in their ongoing attempts to identify and root out American Communists.
Sevareid and the Feds
Internal FBI documents, declassified in 1996, show that the bureau took an active interest in Eric Sevareid's reporting as well as his activities during the early 1950s. A March 1953 document, titled "Security Information," is one of several FBI documents that chronicle Sevareid's activities during the 1940s. In particular the document mentions that in 1941 Sevareid was a Communist while at the University of Minnesota and goes on to note his involvement in an awards banquet held by the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee(JAFRC) in 1945. Much of the knowledge the FBI had of Sevareid's purported Communist activity came through "a representative of another governmental agency" and remained unconfirmed by investigation.
The information contained in the bureau's files was being circulated during March of 1953 as Sevareid anchored a new program on CBS called A Report to the Nation. Specifically, the bureau's interest revolved around the March 8, 1953 broadcast of the program in which Sevareid interviewed Harold Stassen, then Director for Mutual Security. Internal documents reveal, time and again, that the FBI did have information on Sevareid's alleged "disloyal" activities, as well as active suspicion that he was a "disloyal" American..
Among Sevareid's activities which the FBI referenced multiple times were:
A May 17, 1945 report in the Daily People's World which stated Sevareid was a scheduled speaker at the above mentioned JAFRC banquet. The FBI called the Daily People's World the West Coast communist newspaper and said that Sevareid was identified as a radio commentator in its reports A May 19, 1945 "newspapermen's forum" titled "The Free Press" held at the California Labor School in which Sevareid was a partcipant. That the name Eric Sevareid was included on a list of people to contact in connection to raise funds for Hollywood celebrities appearing before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. Unsubstantiated reports that while at the University of Minnesota Sevareid associated mostly with Communists. That while editor of the newspaper at the University of Minnesota Sevareid was a participant in an active campaign against the ROTC.By April 1953 internal FBI documents show that the bureau saw no real reason to begin investigation into Sevareid's activities.
The 50s after the FBI
Sevareid wound up the 1950s as CBS' roving European Correspondent from l959-61. Sevareid also appeared in or on CBS coverage of every presidential election from 1948 until 1976, the year before his retirement.
Career from 1961-1977
One of Sevareid's biggest scoops from this time period was his 1965 exclusive interview with Adlai Stevenson, shortly before Stevenson's death. However it was Sevareid's familiar "think-pieces" which familiarized him with viewers worldwide.
From 1964 until he retired from CBS in 1977 Sevareid's two-minute segments on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite inspired those who endeared him to dub him "The Grey Eminence." Of course not everybody loved Sevareid's analysis and those who were irked by his commentary nicknamed him "Eric Severalsides." Indeed, Sevareid recognized his own biases that were responsible for some diagreeing so vehemently with his stances.
His commentary touched on many of the days important issues.
Death
Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer on July 9, 1992, aged 79.
Sevareid in popular culture
Eric portrayed himself in the movie, The Right Stuff. 1965: New York Newspaper Guild Page One Award 1950: Peabody Award 1964: Peabody Award 1976: Peabody Award Two-time Emmy Award winner 1981: Harry S.
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