Editing Howard K. Smith (section)

==Early career and CBS years==

===World War II===
Upon graduating, Smith worked for the ''[[New Orleans Item]]'', with [[United Press]] in London, and with ''[[The New York Times]]''. In January 1940, Smith was sent to Berlin, where he joined the [[Columbia Broadcasting System]] under [[Edward R. Murrow]].<ref name=MCreg /> He visited [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s mountain retreat at [[Berchtesgaden]] and interviewed many leading [[Nazism|Nazis]], including Hitler himself, [[Schutzstaffel]] or "SS" leader [[Heinrich Himmler]] and Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]].

He was one of the last American reporters to leave Berlin before Germany and the United States went to war. His 1942 book, ''Last Train from Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War'' describes his observations from Berlin in the year after the departure of ''[[Berlin Diary]]'' author [[William L. Shirer]]. ''Last Train from Berlin'' became an American best-seller and was reprinted in 2001, shortly before Smith's death.

Smith became a significant member of the "[[Murrow Boys]]" that made CBS the dominant broadcast news organization of the era. In May 1945, he returned to Berlin to recap the German surrender.

===Post-war===
In 1946, Smith went to London for CBS with the title of chief European correspondent.<ref name=MCreg /> In 1947, he made a long broadcasting tour of most of the nations of Europe, including behind the [[Iron Curtain]]. In 1949, Knopf published his ''The State of Europe'', a 408-page country-by-country survey of Europe that drew on these experiences and that argued "both the American and the Russian policies are mistaken"; he advocated more "social reform" for Western Europe and more "political liberty" for Eastern Europe.{{Citation needed |date=November 2023}} 

Despite these criticisms of Soviet policies, Smith was one of 151 alleged Communist sympathizers named in the ''[[Red Channels]]'' report issued in June 1950 at the beginning of the [[Red Scare]], effectively placing him on the [[Hollywood blacklist]].{{Citation needed |date=November 2023}}

Beginning on January 11, 1959, Smith moderated ''Behind the News with Howard K. Smith'', a CBS-TV program "analying news events and the significance of issues in the news". The sustaining program was broadcast on Sundays from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time.<ref>{{cite magazine |date=August 31, 1959 |page=72 |title=This Week (Cont'd) |url=https://archive.org/details/rossreportstele84ross/page/n1/mo |magazine=Ross Reports |access-date=November 14, 2023 }}</ref>

===Civil Rights reporting: Who Speaks for Birmingham?===
Reporting on civil-rights riots in Birmingham in the early 1960s, Smith revealed the conspiracy that existed between police commissioner [[Bull Connor]] and the [[KKK]] to beat up black people and [[Freedom Riders]]. He planned to end his report "Who Speaks for Birmingham?" (broadcast date: May 18, 1961<ref>{{Citation |title=Howard K. Smith on getting fired from CBS - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrVGDUN-Wa8 |access-date=2023-03-17 |language=en}}</ref> with a quote from [[Edmund Burke]], "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," but the CBS lawyers intervened. Nonetheless, the documentary caused a stir (leading CBS to be sued and its Birmingham TV station to disaffiliate), and because his contract with [[CBS]] forbade editorializing, Smith was suspended and subsequently fired by CBS President [[William S. Paley]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mitgang |first=Herbert |date=16 April 1996 |title=HOWARD K. SMITH: TV HISTORY |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1996/04/16/howard-k-smith-tv-history/1134ceca-32b0-4ece-a9c5-1a205c50128e/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Television in America: An Autobiography - Howard K. Smith | date=October 21, 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-SWbG0zgZ8 |access-date=2023-03-17 |language=en}}</ref>