[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 119 (Tuesday, September 14, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10870-S10872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

              MURRAY B. LIGHT, EDITOR OF THE BUFFALO NEWS

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, Murray B. Light will end his 
career in journalism on September 19th, the 50th anniversary of his 
first day at The Buffalo News. Throughout his long and outstanding 
tenure at The News, he has had a profound influence on Buffalo and 
Western New York. He will be greatly missed.

  Murray and I have been friends for many years. On one occasion, 
during my first term, Murray was kind enough to loan me his typewriter. 
I have a photo using it. They have long since switched to computers at 
The News, but I have yet to abandon my typewriter.
  As The Buffalo News Editor, Murray B. Light has had an honored 
career. Stanford Lipsey, The News President and Publisher, said ``The 
responsibility of editing a daily metropolitan newspaper is enormous. 
It involves critical and complex decisions made against stressful 
deadlines. Murray Light never faltered in his courage, principles or 
judgment. He has left his mark on this newspaper and the entire 
community. It has been both stimulating and satisfying to have worked 
with him these past 20 years.''
  I have long admired Murray's aggressive editorial style. Nearly 20 
years ago, I said that The Buffalo News and The Courier Express 
``succeeded in making a not so simple point to the Congress of the 
United States: The leaking of hazardous chemicals at the Love Canal in 
Niagara Falls was not an isolated event but indeed the ominous warning 
of a national epidemic.'' This couldn't have been more right. They made 
the case for immediate passage of the Superfund Bill in 1980 and many 
more since then.
  As I was often a guest of The Buffalo News at the annual Gridiron 
dinner, I had many opportunities to speak with Murray about our common 
concern of

[[Page S10871]]

preserving Buffalo's architecture and historic buildings. Murray made 
efforts to secure funding for the Darwin Martin House. He also made 
outstanding contributions to save Louis Sullivan's marvelous Guaranty 
Building, surely the world's first skyscraper, and to the renovation of 
Kleinhans Music Hall. My Buffalo office is in the Guaranty Building. 
Saving it from destruction is one of my greatest achievements as a 
senator.
  Murray is a patriot having served in the Army in World War II as part 
of the Pacific force. Thanks to the assistance of the GI Bill of 
Rights, he did graduate work at Medill School of Journalism at 
Northwestern University and earned a master's degree in 1949. He also 
was a member of the State Judicial Screening Committee for the Fourth 
Department and the State Fair Trial Free Press Conference. At the 
request of Gov. Mario Cuomo, he served on the New York State Temporary 
Commission on Constitutional Revision in 1994.
  A native of Brooklyn and a graduate of Brooklyn college, Murray came 
to Buffalo in 1949 as a reporter. While at The Buffalo News, he worked 
as a copy editor, assistant city editor, assistant news editor, swing 
editor, makeup editor and news editor, and managing editor. Thirty 
years after he began working for The News, Warren E. Buffett named him 
editor and vice president. He became senior vice president in 1983. 
Murray and his wife of 45 years, Joan, have three children.
  In a letter to Murray, Warren Buffett wrote: ``From both a 
professional and a personal standpoint, you are the perfect person to 
be editor of The Buffalo News. I've always considered myself very lucky 
in having you there when I arrived in 1977.''
  Mr. President, in this spirit, I ask that Edward Cuddihy's article 
from The Buffalo News, be printed in the Record.
  The article follows.

       [From The Buffalo News, August 9, 1999]

            Light to Retire as Editor After 50 Years at News

                          (By Edward Cuddihy)

       Buffalo News Editor Murray B. Light, the only editor most 
     of his newsroom staff members have ever worked for in 
     Buffalo, announced Sunday that he will retire Sept. 19, 
     ending an illustrious journalism career at The Buffalo News 
     that spans a half-century.
       Light, who also is senior vice president of The News, made 
     the announcement ``his way,'' not before a gathering of the 
     public officials and civic leaders he has worked with for the 
     past 30 years, but before about 1,200 fellow workers and 
     their families at an employee appreciation picnic, amid the 
     smell of hot dogs and the sounds of children.
       Light's announcement came immediately after he was honored 
     by News President and Publisher Stanford Lipsey on the 
     upcoming 50th anniversary of Light's first day at The News. 
     The actual date of that anniversary is Sept. 19, the day 
     Light has chosen as his last day at The News.
       In brief remarks, Lipsey said of Light: ``The 
     responsibility of editing a daily metropolitan newspaper is 
     enormous. It involves critical and complex decisions made 
     against stressful deadlines. Murray Light never faltered in 
     his courage, principles or judgment.
       ``He has left his mark on this newspaper and the entire 
     community. It has been both stimulating and satisfying to 
     have worked with him these past 20 years.''
       Light's newsroom leadership began in 1969, the day this 
     feisty young news editor was named managing editor for news. 
     Since then, he set both the tone of the newspaper and the 
     news agenda for the community.
       During the past 30 years, Light has been on a first-name 
     basis with governors, senators, congressmen, state 
     legislative leaders, mayors, county executives and anyone 
     else who might have, or wanted to have, an influence on 
     Buffalo and Western New York.
       Light's three all-consuming concerns have been The Buffalo 
     News, which he recently described to one colleague as ``my 
     life,'' the City of Buffalo, his adopted hometown, and his 
     newsroom staff with whom he agonized over the paper's 
     failures as much as he gloried in its many triumphs.
       Among those triumphs were the launching of the Sunday News, 
     which he describes as ``the most exhilarating challenge of my 
     entire career''; the creation of the popular weekly 
     entertainment section Gusto; and the development of the 
     Sunrise Edition, which made The News one of the nation's 
     all-day newspapers.
       Light has been comfortable taking part in every aspect of 
     the newspaper, whether it be his daily attendance at the 
     Editorial Board meetings, where the newspaper's editorial 
     page policy is developed, or his choosing of comics and 
     puzzles for the back pages.
       No matter what part of the newspaper he dealt with, his 
     news instincts, often initially seen by his colleagues as a 
     quick shot straight from the hip, usually proved impeccable. 
     For example, Light's idea for Gusto initially was rejected by 
     many as impractical and unnecessary. But Light persisted, and 
     a generation later, nearly every metropolitan newspaper in 
     the country has a section like Gusto, which proved to be 
     popular beyond his imagination.
       Light has been directing the morning and evening news 
     meetings at which the editors decide which stories will be 
     played on the front page since those meetings were initiated 
     at The News 15 years ago. At times, an informal vote is taken 
     on what editors describe as ``a close call,'' but everyone 
     around the table knows that only the single ballot at the 
     head of the table counts.
       Light, who will be 73 in October, runs the newsroom by the 
     sheer force of his dominant personality. His enthusiasm for 
     every detail, large or small, has been a hallmark of his 
     career. He once told the story of his teen-age job in 
     Brooklyn, operating a machine that inserted three pennies 
     change into cigarette packs for vending machines. ``No job is 
     ever too small to demand your attention,'' he told young 
     editors, adding with a smile that he nearly knocked his 
     finger off when he let his concentration drift for a moment.
       Only the fourth person to hold the title of editor at this 
     newspaper during the 20th century, Light came to Buffalo and 
     The News as a reporter in 1949. A native of Brooklyn, his 
     first newspaper job was as campus correspondent for the old 
     Brooklyn Eagle while he was earning his bachelor's degree at 
     Brooklyn College.
       He enlisted in the Army and was part of the force in the 
     Pacific being readied for an invasion of Japan, a force that 
     this country never needed to utilize. After his return, he 
     did graduate work at Medill School of Journalism at 
     Northwestern University under the GI Bill of Rights and 
     earned a master's degree in 1949.
       During his brief stint as a copy editor at the old New York 
     World-Telegram, Light was hired by the legendary editor of 
     The News, Alfred H. Kirchhofer, a man whom Light quotes to 
     this day with the degree of respect and loyalty he has 
     expected from his employees. Light worked as a copy editor, 
     assistant city editor, assistant news editor, swing editor, 
     makeup editor and news editor before being named managing 
     editor for news in June 1969.
       In October 1979, Light was named editor and vice president, 
     and in 1983, he was named senior vice president.
       Light recalls that in 1977, when investor Warren E. Buffett 
     purchased The News, the amiable billionaire from Omaha, Neb., 
     told Light he would never interfere in newsroom operations.
       ``And to this day, he has lived up to that pledge one 
     hundred percent,'' Light said.
       Among his memorabilia of 50 years is a carefully folded 
     letter Light received from the chairman of The Buffalo News 
     just prior to Light's 70th birthday.
       Buffett wrote: ``From both a professional and a personal 
     standpoint, you are the perfect person to be editor of The 
     Buffalo News. I've always considered myself very lucky in 
     having you there when I arrived in 1977.''
       During Light's watch as managing editor and editor, he saw 
     the transformation of American newsrooms from manual 
     typewriters to word processors, and in the mid-80s, when many 
     of his younger colleagues were balking at giving up their 
     typewriters for computers, Light insisted that he be among 
     the first to turn in his trusty Royal for the new invention.
       Light has been characterized as an editor right out of 
     ``The Front Page,'' a hard-nosed, often irreverent newsman, 
     hell-bent at getting the big story on the press. He has lived 
     through tumultuous change in American journalism, but he has 
     not altered his fundamental views on a newspaper's 
     relationship with its readers.
       Speaking to a group of advertising executives 20 years ago, 
     Light summed up those views when he said:
       ``The News will not sensationalize to create a headline. We 
     will not, through reference or emphasis, play to the emotions 
     of a segment of our readership and in the process denigrate, 
     dismay or demolish the reputation of a group--whether it be 
     civic, political or ethnic * * *
       ``We will not use our news columns to reinforce and/or 
     espouse the causes of our editorial page. The News wants to 
     sell newspapers * * * but we will not attempt to do so by 
     yielding to expediency and destroying our news integrity.''
       In January 1979, Light began writing a column, ``Your 
     Newspaper,'' in which he shared his views on the newspaper 
     and its staff with the readers. Since then, he has written 
     hundreds of such columns, which he keeps in a cardboard box 
     in his office. Light said he plans to write a column for The 
     News Sunday Viewpoints Section, starting this fall.
       Light held offices and holds membership in a large number 
     of professional organizations, including past president of 
     the New York State Society of Newspaper Editors.
       He also has been honored by scores of business, civic, 
     social and charitable organizations. Never a man to court 
     personal honors, one of his most treasured accomplishments 
     was to be chosen by his peers to be part of the nominating 
     jury for journalism's coveted Pulitzer Prizes, a post he held 
     in 1990 and 1991.
       Light served on the advisory council to the journalism 
     department at St. Bonaventure University and has served on 
     the Community Advisory Council of the University at Buffalo.
       He is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors 
     and the Associated Press

[[Page S10872]]

     Managing Editors Association. He also was a member of the 
     State Judicial Screening Committee for the Fourth Department 
     and the State Fair Trial Free Press Conference. Gov. Mario 
     Cuomo appointed him to the New York State Temporary 
     Commission on Constitutional Revision in 1994.
       A staunch supporter of the City of Buffalo, Light and his 
     wife of 45 years, Joan, moved from suburban Amherst in the 
     1970s to a home near the city's Allentown section and most 
     recently to a condominium in the Waterfront Village 
     community. Joan recently retired as vice president of Sovran 
     Self Storage, Williamsville.
       The Lights have three children. Lee, a registered nurse 
     with the Buffalo Red Cross Chapter; Laura, a medieval scholar 
     on the Harvard University faculty; and Jeffrey, deputy editor 
     of the Orange County (Calif.) Register.
       Light seeks to quench his life-long thirst for knowledge 
     through reading. He recently told his colleagues, without as 
     much as raising an eyebrow, that he reads ``about a hundred 
     books a year, give or take a few,'' in addition to 
     newspapers, news magazines and professional journals.
       In his younger years, Light would be hard-pressed to pass 
     up a poker game, and he and Joan were regulars on the tennis 
     court.
       Just 19 years ago, Light was quoted as insisting he could 
     never share his wife's fondness for golf. But in recent 
     years, the Lights have been regulars on the golf course at 
     Wanakah Country Club, where they are members. And this 
     summer, the Lights were spectators at the British Open in 
     Carnoustie, Scotland.
       Murray B. Light has always had the ability to alter his 
     view in the face of a persuasive argument made by someone he 
     trusts--even an argument about golf.

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