A review of a current book relates a thoughtful comment made by pioneer news commentator Edward R. Murrow, who said of broadcasting: "It can become a powerful force for mutual understanding between nations. . . . [It] can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire."
The reviewer goes on to say, however, that "broadcasting ... is still perceived to have fallen short of its potential, still seen as being cavalier with its responsibility."The Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1986, p. 28. Some programs are of course commendable, and the potential remains.
The state of the newspaper industry at the time when The Christian Science Monitor was founded was not unlike the state of the radio and television industries described above. And now that the Monitor has entered the field of broadcasting, the same positive influence that the Monitor brings daily to newspaper journalism is acting as a leaven in radio and television journalism through the expanding services of the Monitor. In fact, Mrs. Eddy's purpose in founding the Monitor may be effectively related to the Monitor's broadcasting enterprises. After spelling out the purpose of the other periodicals she founded, she writes, "... the next I named Monitor, to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353.
