Radio: Senator Abroad

Ed Murrow is unquestionably the only TV news analyst to have a U.S. Senator for a foreign correspondent. The Senator: Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith who, before she turned to politics, worked on the Skowhegan (Me.) Independent Reporter. When he learned last month that Senator Smith planned a European tour after her reelection, Murrow asked if he might send along a CBS camera crew. She agreed, and has already dispatched chatty filmed interviews for Murrow’s See It Now with such personalities as Anthony Eden. Punch Editor Malcolm Muggeridge and Nye Bevan (“Mr. Bevan . . . what are your principal impressions about Communist China?”). In Germany the CBS cameraman was taken into one-hour custody by suspicious Red police during a visit to East Berlin (“Ed, this really makes me think”).

In Moscow last week, Senator-Correspondent Smith held an hour-long “general discussion” with Foreign Minister Molotov. Later, to the bewilderment of the State Department, she declared that she would not be surprised if U.S.-Soviet diplomatic relations were “broken off at any time by either side.” See It Now viewers will get a report this month on the Molotov meeting and can look forward to a fuller explanation of Reporter Smith’s teaser about U.S.-Soviet relations.