From Daniel Schorr’s obit in the Times:
The Times offered him a job [in 1952] but suggested he return to the Netherlands for a few weeks while details were worked out. In early February 1953, that country was devastated by a severe storm, and Mr. Schorr’s dispatches so impressed Murrow, one of the most respected broadcast journalists working then, that he cabled him–Mr. Schorr recalled the exact words more than a half-century later–asking, "Would you at all consider joining the staff of CBS News with an initial assignment in Washington?"
Mr. Schorr still preferred The Times, but when he didn’t hear further, he inquired and learned that the offer had been withdrawn. As Mr. Schorr told the story, an editor later sheepishly explained that the paper was concerned that too many Jewish bylines might jeopardize its coverage of the Mideast.
I wonder if that’s the whole story. The Times job was in New York; how would that affect the Middle East coverage? I wonder if the issue wasn’t class/zeal; Schorr was the son of immigrants, and a Zionist, the Times’s publisher was anti-Zionist. And of course today both Times correspondents in Jerusalem are Jewish and tend to imbibe the Israeli story…
