Editing Edward R. Murrow (section)

===Radio===
In December 1945 Murrow reluctantly accepted [[William S. Paley]]'s offer to become a vice president of the network and head of CBS News, and made his last news report from London in March 1946.<ref name="sperber1998"/>{{rp|259,261}} His presence and personality shaped the newsroom. After the war, he maintained close friendships with his previous hires, including members of the Murrow Boys. Younger colleagues at CBS became resentful toward this, viewing it as preferential treatment, and formed the "Murrow Isn't God Club." The club disbanded when Murrow asked if he could join.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cuthbertson|first1=Keith|title=A Complex Fate: William L. Shirer and the American Century|date=May 1, 2015|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|isbn=978-0773597242|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZwHCAAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name="Wertenbaker"/>

During Murrow's tenure as vice president, his relationship with Shirer ended in 1947 in one of the great confrontations of American broadcast journalism, when Shirer was fired by CBS. He said he resigned in the heat of an interview at the time, but was actually terminated.<ref name=native>{{cite book|title=20th Century Journey: A Native's Return |publisher=Little Brown |year=1990 |author=William L. Shirer}}</ref> The dispute began when J. B. Williams, maker of shaving soap, withdrew its sponsorship of Shirer's Sunday news show. CBS, of which Murrow was then vice president for public affairs, decided to "move in a new direction," hired a new host, and let Shirer go. There are different versions of these events; Shirer's was not made public until 1990.

Shirer contended that the root of his troubles was the network and sponsor not standing by him because of his comments critical of the [[Truman Doctrine]], as well as other comments that were considered outside of the mainstream. Shirer and his supporters felt he was being muzzled because of his views. Meanwhile, Murrow, and even some of Murrow's Boys, felt that Shirer was coasting on his high reputation and not working hard enough to bolster his analyses with his own research.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} Murrow and Shirer never regained their close friendship.

The episode hastened Murrow's desire to give up his network vice presidency and return to newscasting, and it foreshadowed his own problems to come with his friend Paley, boss of CBS.

Murrow and Paley had become close when the network chief himself joined the war effort, setting up [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] radio outlets in Italy and North Africa. After the war, he would often go to Paley directly to settle any problems he had. "Ed Murrow was Bill Paley's one genuine friend in CBS," noted Murrow biographer [[Joseph Persico]].

Murrow returned to the air in September 1947, taking over the nightly 7:45&nbsp;p.m. [[Eastern Time Zone|ET]] newscast sponsored by [[Campbell's Soup]] and anchored by his old friend and announcing coach Bob Trout. For the next several years Murrow focused on radio, and in addition to news reports he produced special presentations for CBS News Radio. In 1950, he narrated a half-hour radio documentary called ''The Case of the Flying Saucer''. It offered a balanced look at [[unidentified flying object|UFOs]], a subject of widespread interest at the time. Murrow interviewed both [[Kenneth Arnold]] and astronomer [[Donald Menzel]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Crucial Decade: Voices of the Postwar Era, 1945-1954|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/voices-of-postwar.html|website=National Archives|access-date=August 10, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite episode|title=The Case of the Flying Saucer|series=Special News Report|url=https://archive.org/download/1950-1959RadioNews/1950-04-07-CBS-Edward-R-Murrow-Case-Of-The-Flying-Saucer.mp3|credits=Edward R. Murrow|network=CBS Radio News|air-date=April 7, 1950}}</ref>

From 1951 to 1955, Murrow was the host of ''[[This I Believe]]'', which offered ordinary people the opportunity to speak for five minutes on radio. He continued to present daily radio news reports on the CBS Radio Network until 1959. He also recorded a series of narrated "historical albums" for [[Columbia Records]] called ''I Can Hear It Now'', which inaugurated his partnership with producer [[Fred W. Friendly]]. In 1950 the records evolved into a weekly CBS Radio show, ''[[Hear It Now]]'', hosted by Murrow and co-produced by Murrow and Friendly.