John Crosby, was a  columnist for The New York Herald Tribune from 1935 to 1941 and, after WWII military service, from 1946 to 1965.  

He continued newspaper and novel writing into  the mid-seventies, but is remembered best  as the Tribune’s chief radio/TV critic during the 1950’s.  This line of his about CBS-TV cancelling Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now,” helps explain why Crosby was so well regarded: “See it Now… is by every criterion television’s most brilliant, most decorated, most imaginative, most courageous and most important program. The fact that CBS cannot afford it but can afford “Beat The Clock,”is  shocking.” Another worthy observation of his concerned WNEW’s new, (1958) full-time news department and its “brash young news staff” whose news coverage was “busting out all over.”  Read on.  

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The image above is a recreation of a 1959 John Crosby column as published in the New York Herald Tribune.  Thanks to Bill Diehl for finding a copy of the original column in February 2012 and to Bob Gibson for the reminder that Mr. Crosby pounded out praise of WNEW on his portable typewriter, 60 years ago this month. E.B.